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THE  SMOKY  GOD 

Or 

A  Voyage  to  the  Inner  World 


'•■-^ 


OTHER  BOOKS 
BY 

WILLIS  GEORGE  EMERSON 


"BUELL  HAMPTON."    A  Novel 
"THE  BUILDERS."    A  Novel 


FORBES  &  CO.         CHICAGO 


'VXs-//fi^l 


Lt 


lyu^ 


"/   zvas  left  alone  zvitli   the   dead" 


THE  SMOKY  GOD 


OR 


A  Voyage  to  the  Inner  World 


BY 

WILLIS  GEORGE  EMERSON 

AUTHOR  OP   "BUELL  HAMPTON,"    "THE  BUILDERS,"  ETC. 


With  Illustrations  by 
JOHN  A.  WILLIAMS 


CHICAGO 

FORBES  &  COMPANY 

1908 


Copyright,  1908. 
By  WILLIS  GEORGE  EMERSON 


De&lcatcO 

TO 
MY  CHUM  AND  COMPANION 

BONNIE  EMERSON 

MY  WIFE 


CONTENTS 


Page 

Part       I,  Author's  Foreword  ....  11 

Part     II.  Olaf  Jansen's  Story      ...  45 

Part    III.  Beyond  the  North  Wixd  .     .  81 

Part    IV.  In  the  Under  World     .      .      .  127 

Part      Y.  Among  the  Ice  Packs    .      .      .  155 

Part    VI.  Conclusion 173 

Part  VII.  Author's  Afterword      .     .     .  184 


ILLUSTRATIONS 

Page 
"  I  was  left  alone  with  the  dead."    .      Fruntispiece 

"  Twenty-eig-ht  years  —  long,  tedious,  fright- 
ful years  of  suffering." 49 

*'  A  vessel  larger  than  our  little  fishing  sloop 
could  not  have  threaded  its  way  among  the 
icebergs." 57 

"  By  what  miracle  we  escaped  being  dashed 
to  destruction,  I  do  not  know."  ....     73 

"  It  could  hardly  be  said  to  resemble  the  sun 
except  in  its  circular  shape."       ....     89 

"  They  spoke  to  us  in  a  strange  language."     .  101 

'*  "We  were  brought  before  the  Great  High 
Priest." 121 

"  There  must  have  been  five  hundred  of  these 
thunder-throated  monsters." 135 

''My  father  shouted:     'Breakers  ahead!'"   .   151 

**  Less  than  a  half  mile  away  was  a  whaling 
vessel." 1G5 

"  Whereupon  1  was  put  in  irons."  ....   169 


The  Smoky  God 

Or 

A  Voyage  to  the  Inner  World 

"He  is  the  God  who  sits  in  the  center,  on 
the  navel  of  the  earth,  and  he  is  the  interpre- 
ter of  religion  to  all  mankind." — Plato. 

PART  ONE 
AUTHOR'S  FOREWORD 

I  FEAR  the  seemingly  incredible 
story  wMcli  I  am  about  to  relate 
will  be  regarded  as  the  result  of  a  dis- 
torted intellect  superinduced,  possi- 
bly, by  the  glamour  of  unveiling  a 
marvelous  m}'stery,  rather  than  a 
truthful  record  of  the  unparalleled 
experiences  related  by  one  Olaf  Jan- 
11 


THE  SMOKY  GOD 

sen,  Avhose  eloquent  madness  so  ap- 
pealed to  my  imagination  that  all 
thought  of  an  analytical  criticism 
has  been  effectual^  dispelled. 

Marco  Polo  will  doubtless  shift  un- 
easily in  his  grave  at  the  strange 
story  I  am  called  upon  to  chronicle; 
a  story  as  strange  as  a  Munchausen 
tale.  It  is  also  incongruous  that  I, 
a  disbeliever,  should  be  the  one  to 
edit  the  story  of  Olaf  Jansen,  whose 
name  is  now  for  the  first  time  given 
to  the  world,  yet  who  must  hereafter 
rank  as  one  of  the  notables  of  earth. 

I  freely  confess  his  statements  ad- 
mit of  no  rational  analysis,  but  have 
to  do  with  the  profound  mystery  con- 
cerning the  frozen  North  that  for 
centuries  has  claimed  the  attention  of 
scientists  and  laymen  alike. 
12 


THE  SMOKY  GOD 

However  mucli  they  are  at  variance 
with  the  cosmographical  mauuscripts 
of  the  past,  these  plain  statements 
may  be  relied  u])oil  as  a  record  of  the 
things  Olaf  Jansen  claims  to  have 
seen  with  his  own  eyes. 

A  hundred  times  I  have  asked  my- 
self whether  it  is  possible  that  the 
world 's  geography  is  incomplete,  and 
that  the  startling  narrative  of  Olaf 
Jansen  is  predicated  upon  demon- 
strable facts.  The  reader  may  be 
able  to  answer  these  queries  to  his 
own  satisfaction,  however  far  the 
chronicler  of  this  narrative  may  be 
from  having  reached  a  conviction. 
Yet  sometimes  even  I  am  at  a  loss 
to  know  whether  I  have  been  led  away 
from  an  abstract  truth  by  the  ignes 
fatal  of  a  clever  superstition,  or 
13 


THE  SMOKY  GOD 

whether  heretofore  accepted  facts  are, 
after  all,  founded  upon  falsity. 

It  may  be  that  the  true  home  of 
Apollo  was  not  at  Delphi,  but  in  that 
older  earth-center  of  which  Plato 
sj)eaks,  where  he  says:  *' Apollo's 
real  home  is  among  the  Hyperbo- 
reans, in  a  land  of  perpetual  life, 
where  mythology  tells  us  two  doves 
flying  from  the  two  opposite  ends  of 
the  world  met  in  this  fair  region,  the 
home  of  Apollo.  Indeed,  according 
to  Hecatseus,  Leto,  the  mother  of 
Apollo,  was  born  on  an  island  in  the 
Arctic  Ocean  far  beyond  the  North 
Wind." 

It  is  not  my  intention  to  attempt 
a  discussion  of  the  theogony  of  the 
deities  nor  the  cosmogony  of  the 
world.  ]\Iy  simple  duty  is  to  en- 
Id 


THE  SMOKY  GOD 

lighten  the  \Yorld  coiieerning  n  here- 
tofore iinkno^^ii  jiortion  of  the  uni- 
verse, as  it  was  seen  and  described 
by  the  old  Norseman,  Olaf  Jmisen. 

Interest  in  northern  research  is  in- 
ternational. Eleven  nations  are  en- 
gaged in,  or  have  contributed  to,  the 
perilous  work  of  trying  to  solve 
Earth's  one  remaining  cosmological 
mystery. 

There  is  a  saying,  ancient  as  the 
hills,  that  "truth  is  stranger  than  fic- 
tion," and  in  a  most  startling  man- 
ner has  this  axiom  been  brought  home 
to  me  within  the  last  fortnight. 

It  was  just  two  0  'clock  in  the  morn- 
ing when  I  was  aroused  from  a  restful 
sleep  by  the  vigorous  ringing  of  my 
door-bell.  The  untimely  disturber 
proved  to  be  a  messenger  bearing  a 
15 


THE  SMOKY  GOD 

note,  scrawled  almost  io  the  point  of 
illegibility,  from  an  old  Norseman 
b}^  the  name  of  Olaf  Jansen.  After 
mneli  deciphering,  I  made  ont  the 
writing,  which  simply  said:  "Am 
ill  unto  death.  Come."  The  call 
was  imperative,  and  I  lost  no  time 
in  making  ready  to  comph\ 

Perhaps  I  may  as  well  explain  here 
that  Olaf  Jansen,  a  man  who  quite 
recently  celebrated  his  ninety-fifth 
birthday,  has  for  the  last  half-dozen 
years  been  living  alone  in  an  unpre- 
tentious bungalow  out  Glendale  way, 
a  short  distance  from  the  business 
district  of  Los  Angeles,  California. 

It  was  less  than  two  years  ago, 

while  out  walking  one  afternoon,  that 

I   was   attracted  by   Olaf   Jansen 's 

house  and  its  homelike  surroundings, 

16 


THE  SMOKY  GOD 

toward  its  owner  and  occupant,  whom 
I  afterward  came  to  know  as  a  l)e- 
liever  in  the  ancient  worship  of  Odin 
and  Thor. 

There  was  a  gentleness  in  his  face, 
and  a  kindly  expression  in  the  keenly 
alert  gray  eyes  of  this  man  who  had 
lived  more  than  fonr-score  years  and 
ten ;  and,  withal,  a  sense  of  loneliness 
that  appealed  to  my  sympathy. 
Slightly  stooped,  and  wdth  his  hands 
clasped  behind  him,  he  walked  back 
and  forth  with  slow  and  measured 
tread,  that  day  when  first  we  met.  I 
can  hardly  say  what  particular  mo- 
tive impelled  me  to  pause  in  mj  walk 
and  engage  him  in  conversation.  He 
seemed  pleased  when  I  complimented 
him  on  tlie  attractiveness  of  his  bmi- 
galow,  and  on  the  well-tended  vines 
17 


THE  S.MOKY  (JOD 

and  flowers  clustering  in  j^rofiision 
over  its  windows,  roof  and  wide  pi- 
azza. 

I  soon  discovered  tliat  my  new  ac- 
quaintance was  no  ordinary  person, 
but  one  profound  and  learned  to  a 
remarkable  degree ;  a  man  who,  in  the 
later  years  of  his  long  life,  had  dug 
deeph^  into  books  and  become  strong 
in  the  power  of  meditative  silence. 

I  encouraged  him  to  talk,  and  soon 
gathered  that  he  had  resided  only  six 
or  seven  years  in  Southern  Califor- 
nia, but  had  passed  the  dozen  years 
prior  in  one  of  the  middle  Eastern 
states.  Before  that  he  had  been  a 
fisherman  off  the  coast  of  Norway,  in 
the  region  of  the  Lofoden  Islands, 
from  whence  he  had  made  trips  still 
18 


THE  SMOKY  GOD 

farther  nortli  to  Sx^itzbergen  and 
even  to  Franz  Josef  Land. 

When  I  started  to  take  my  leave, 
he  seemed  reluctant  to  have  me  go, 
and  asked  me  to  come  again.  Al- 
though at  the  time  I  thought  nothing 
of  it,  I  remember  now  that  he  made 
a  peculiar  remark  as  I  extended  my 
hand  in  leave-taking.  ''You  will 
come  again?"  he  asked.  "Yes,  you 
will  come  again  some  day.  I  am  sure 
you  will;  and  I  shall  show  you  my 
library  and  tell  you  many  things  of 
which  you  have  never  dreamed, 
things  so  wonderful  that  it  may  be 
you  will  not  believe  me. ' ' 

I  laughingly  assured  him  that  I 
would  not  only  come  again,  but  would 
be  ready  to  believe  whatever  he  might 
19 


THE  S^LOKY  GOD 

choose  to  tell  me  of  his  travels  and  ad- 
ventures. 

In  the  days  that  followed  I  became 
well  acquainted  with  Olaf  Jansen, 
and,  little  by  little,  he  told  me  his 
story,  so  marvelous,  that  its  very 
daring  challenges  reason  and  belief. 
The  old  Norseman  always  expressed 
himself  with  so  much  earnestness  and 
sincerity  that  I  became  enthralled  by 
his  strange  narrations. 

Then  came  the  messenger 's  call  that 
night,  and  within  the  hour  I  was  at 
Olaf  Jansen 's  bungalow. 

He  was  very  impatient  at  the  long 
wait,  although  after  being  summoned 
I  had  come  immediately  to  his  bed- 
side. 

^*I   must   hasten,^'   he   exclaimed, 
while  yet  he  held  my  hand  in  greet- 
20 


THE  SMOKY  GOD 

ing.  ''I  have  much  to  tell  you  that 
you  know  not,  and  I  will  trust  no  one 
but  you.  I  fully  realize,"  he  went  on 
hurriedl}^,  ''that  I  shall  not  survive 
the  night.  The  time  has  come  to  join 
my  fathers  in  the  great  sleep." 

I  adjusted  the  i^illows  to  make  him 
more  comfortable,  and  assured  him  I 
was  glad  to  be  able  to  serve  him  in 
any  way  possible,  for  I  was  begin- 
ning to  realize  the  seriousness  of  his 
condition. 

The  lateness  of  the  hour,  the  still- 
ness of  the  surroundings,  the  uncanny 
feeling  of  being  alone  with  the  dying 
man,  together  with  his  weird  story, 
all  combined  to  make  my  heart  beat 
fast  and  loud  with  a  feeling  for  which 
I  have  no  name.  Indeed,  there  were 
many  times  that  night  by  the  old 
21 


THE  SMOKY  GOD 

Norseman's  couch,  and  there  have 
been  many  times  since,  when  a  sen- 
sation rather  than  a  conviction  took 
possession  of  my  very  soul,  and  I 
seemed  not  only  to  believe  in,  but  ac- 
tually see,  the  strange  lands,  the 
strange  people  and  the  strange  world 
of  which  he  told,  and  to  hear  the 
mighty  orchestral  ^chorus  of  a  thou- 
sand lusty  voices. 

For  over  two  hours  he  seemed  en- 
dowed with  almost  superhiunan 
strength,  talking  rapidly,  and  to  all 
appearances,  rationally.  Finally  he 
gave  into  my  hands  certain  data, 
drawings  and  crude  maps.  ' '  These, ' ' 
said  he  in  conclusion,  "I  leave  in 
your  hands.  If  I  can  have  your 
promise  to  give  them  to  the  world,  I 
shall  die  happy,  because  I  desire  that 
22 


THE  SMOKY  GOD 

people  may  know  the  truth,  for  then 
all  mystery  concerning  the  frozen 
Northland  will  be  explained.  There 
is  no  chance  of  your  suffering  the 
fate  I  suffered.  They  will  not  put 
you  in  irons,  nor  confine  you  in  a 
mad-house,  because  you  are  not  tell- 
ing your  ovni  story,  but  mine,  and  I, 
thanks  to  the  gods,  Odin  and  Thor, 
will  be  in  my  grave,  and  so  beyond 
the  reach  of  disbelievers  who  would 
persecute. ' ' 

Without  a  thought  of  the  far- 
reaching  results  the  promise  entailed, 
or  foreseeing  the  many  sleepless 
nights  which  the  obligation  has  since 
brought  me,  I  gave  my  hand  and  with 
it  a  pledge  to  discharge  faithfully  his 
dying  wish. 

As  the  sun  rose  over  the  peaks  of 
23 


THE  SMOKY  GOD 

the  San  Jacinto,  far  to  the  eastward, 
the  spirit  of  Olaf  Jansen,  the  naviga- 
tor, the  explorer  and  worshiper  of 
Odin  and  Thor,  the  man  whose  expe- 
riences and  travels,  as  related,  are 
without  a  parallel  in  all  the  world's 
history,  passed  away,  and  I  was  left 
alone  with  the  dead. 

And  now,  after  having  paid  the  last 
sad  rites  to  this  strange  man  from  the 
Lofoden  Islands,  and  the  still  farther 
*' Northward  Ho!",  the  courageous 
explorer  of  frozen  regions,  who  in  his 
declining  years  (after  he  had  passed 
the  four-score  mark)  had  sought  an 
asylum  of  restful  peace  in  sun- 
favored  California,  I  will  undertake 
to  make  public  his  story. 

But,  first  of  all,  let  me  indulge  in 
one  or  two  reflections: 
24 


THE  SMOKY  GOD 

Generation  follows  generation,  and 
the  traditions  from  the  misty  past 
are  handed  down  from  sire  to  son,  but 
for  some  strange  reason  interest  in 
the  ice-locked  miknown  does  not  abate 
with  the  receding  years,  either  in  the 
minds  of  the  ignorant  or  the  tutored. 

With  each  new  generation  a  restless 
impulse  stirs  the  hearts  of  men  to  cap- 
ture the  veiled  citadel  of  the  Arctic, 
the  circle  of  silence,  the  land  of 
glaciers,  cold  wastes  of  waters  and 
winds  that  are  strangely  warm.  In- 
creasing interest  is  manifested  in  the 
mountainous  icebergs,  and  marvelous 
speculations  are  indulged  in  concern- 
ing the  earth's  center  of  gi'avity,  the 
cradle  of  the  tides,  where  the  whales 
have  their  nurseries,  where  the  mag- 
netic needle  goes  mad,  where  the 
25 


THE  SMOKY  GOD 

Aurora  Borealis  illumines  the  night, 
and  where  brave  and  courageous 
spirits  of  every  generation  dare  to 
venture  and  explore,  defymg  the  dan- 
gers of  the  "Farthest  North." 

One  of  the  ablest  works  of  recent 
years  is  "Paradise  Found,  or  the 
Cradle  of  The  Human  Race  at  the 
North  Pole,"  by  William  F.  Warren. 
In  his  carefully  prepared  volume, 
Mr.  Warren  almost  stubbed  his  toe 
against  the  real  truth,  but  missed  it 
seemingly  by  only  a  hair's  breadth, 
if  the  old  Norseman's  revelation  be 
true. 

Dr.  Orville  Livingston  Leech, 
scientist,  in  a  recent  article,  says: 

^'TJie  possihilities  of  a  land  inside 
the  earth  tve^^e  first  drought  to  my  at- 
tention when  I  picked  up  a  geode  on 
26 


THE  SMOKY  GOD 

the  shores  of  the  Great  Lakes.  The 
geode  is  a  spherical  and  apparently 
solid  stone,  'but  when  broken  is  found 
to  be  hollow  and  coated  tvith  crystals. 
The  earth  is  only  a  larger  form  of 
a  geode,  and  the  laiv  that  created  the 
geode  in  its  hollow  form  undoubtedly 
fashioned  the  earth  in  the  same  way.'^ 

In  presenting  the  theme  of  this  al- 
most incredible  storj^,  as  told  by  Olaf 
Jansen,  and  supplemented  by  manu- 
script, maps  and  crude  drawings  en- 
trusted to  me,  a  fitting  introduction 
is  found  in  the  following  quotation: 

''In  the  beginning  God  created  the 
heaven  and  the  earth,  and  the  earth 
was  without  form  and  void."  And 
also,  "God  created  man  in  his  own 
image."  Therefore,  even  in  things 
material,  man  must  be  God-like,  be- 
27 


THE  SMOKY  GOD 

cause  he  is  created  in  the  likeness  of 
the  Father. 

A  man  builds  a  house  for  himself 
and  family.  The  porches  or  veran- 
das are  all  without,  and  are  secondary. 
The  building  is  really  constructed  for 
the  conveniences  within. 

Olaf  Jansen  makes  the  startling  an- 
nouncement through  me,  an  humble 
instrmnent,  that  in  like  manner,  God 
created  the  earth  for  the  ''within" — 
that  is  to  say,  for  its  lands,  seas,  riv- 
ers, mountains,  forests  and  valleys, 
and  for  its  other  internal  conven- 
iences, while  the  outside  surface  of 
the  earth  is  merely  the  veranda,  the 
porch,  where  things  grow  by  compari- 
son but  sparsely,  like  the  lichen  on 
the  mountain  side,  clinging  deter- 
minedly for  bare  existence. 
28 


THE  SMOKY  GOD 

Take  au  egg-sliell,  and  from  each 
end  break  out  a  piece  as  large  as  the 
end  of  this  pencil.  Extract  its  con- 
tents, and  then  you  will  have  a  per- 
fect representation  of  Olaf  Jansen's 
earth.  The  distance  from  the  inside 
surface  to  the  outside  surface,  accord- 
ing to  him,  is  about  three  hundred 
miles.  The  center  of  gravity  is  not 
in  the  center  of  the  earth,  but  in  the 
center  of  the  shell  or  crust ;  therefore, 
if  the  thickness  of  the  earth's  crust 
or  shell  is  three  hmidred  miles,  the 
center  of  gravity  is  one  hundred  and 
fifty  miles  below  the  surface. 

In  their  log-books  Arctic  explorers 
tell  us  of  the  dipping  of  the  needle 
as  the  vessel  sails  in  regions  of  the 
farthest  north  known.  In  reality, 
they  are  at  the  curve;  on  the  edge  of 
29 


THE  SMOKY  GOD 

the  shell,  where  gravity  is  geomet- 
rically increased,  and  while  the  elec- 
tric current  seemingly  dashes  off  into 
space  toward  the  phantom  idea  of  the 
North  Pole,  yet  this  same  electric  cur- 
rent drops  again  and  continues  its 
course  southward  along  the  inside 
surface  of  the  earth's  crust. 

In  the  appendix  to  his  work.  Cap- 
tain Sabine  gives  an  account  of  ex- 
periments to  determine  the  accelera- 
tion of  the  pendulum  in  different 
latitudes.  This  appears  to  have  re- 
sulted from  the  joint  labor  of  Peary 
and  Sabine.  He  says:  ''The  acci- 
dental discovery  that  a  pendulum  on 
being  removed  from  Paris  to  the 
neighborhood  of  the  equator  in- 
creased its  time  of  vibration,  gave  the 
first  step  to  our  present  knowledge 
30 


THE  SMOKY  GOD 

that  the  polar  axis  of  the  globe  is  less 
than  the  equatorial ;  that  the  force  of 
gravity  at  the  surface  of  the  earth  in- 
creases progressively  from  the  equa- 
tor toward  the  poles." 

According  to  Olaf  Jansen,  in  the 
beginning  this  old  world  of  ours  was. 
created  solely  for  the  "within" 
world,  where  are  located  the  four 
great  rivers — the  Euphrates,  the  Pi- 
son,  the  Gihon  and  the  Hiddekel. 
These  same  names  of  rivers,  when  ap- 
plied to  streams  on  the  "outside"  sur- 
face of  the  earth,  are  purely  tradi- 
tional from  an  antiquity  beyond  the 
memory  of  man. 

On  the  top  of  a  high  mountain,  near 

the  fountain-head  of  these  four  rivers, 

Olaf  Jansen,  the  Norseman,  claims  to 

have  discovered  the  long-lost  "Gar- 

31 


THE  SMOKY  GOD 

den  of  Eclen,"  the  veritable  navel  of 
the  earth,  and  to  have  spent  over  two 
years  studyhig  and  reconnoitering  in 
this  marvelous  "within"  land,  exuber- 
ant with  stupendous  plant  life  and 
abounding  in  giant  animals;  a  land 
where  the  people  live  to  be  centuries 
old,  after  the  order  of  Methuselah  and 
other  Biblical  characters;  a  region 
where  one-quarter  of  the  "inner" 
surface  is  water  and  three-quarters 
land;  where  there  are  large  oceans 
and  many  rivers  and  lakes ;  where  the 
cities  are  superlative  in  construction 
and  magnificence;  where  modes  of 
transportation  are  as  far  in  advance 
of  ours  as  we  with  our  boasted 
achievements  are  in  advance  of  the 
inhabitants  of  ' '  darkest  Africa. ' ' 
The  distance  directly  across  the 
32 


THE  SMOKY  GOD 

space  from  inner  surface  to  inner  sur- 
face is  about  six  hundred  miles  less 
than  the  recognized  diameter  of  the 
earth.  In  the  identical  center  of  this 
vast  vacuum  is  the  seat  of  electricity 
— a  manmioth  ball  of  dull  red  fire — • 
not  startlingly  brilliant,  but  sur- 
rounded by  a  white,  mild,  luminous 
cloud,  giving  out  uniform  warmth, 
and  held  in  its  xDlace  in  the  center  of 
this  internal  space  by  the  inmmta- 
ble  law  of  gravitation.  This  electric- 
al cloud  is  known  to  the  j)eople 
*' within"  as  the  abode  of  ''The 
Smoky  God.'^  They  believe  it  to  be 
the  throne  of  ''The  Most  High." 

Olaf  Jansen  reminded  me  of  how, 
in  the  old  college  days,  we  were  all 
familiar  with  the  laboratory  demon- 
strations of  centrifugal  motion,  which 
33 


THE  SMOKY  GOD 

clearly  proved  that,  if  the  earth  were 
a  solid,  the  rapidity  of  its  revolution 
upon  its  axis  would  tear  it  into  a  thou- 
sand fragments. 

The  old  Norseman  also  maintained 
that  from  the  farthest  points  of  land 
on  the  islands  of  Spitzbergen  and 
Franz  Josef  Land,  flocks  of  geese  may 
be  seen  annually  flying  still  farther 
northward,  just  as  the  sailors  and  ex- 
plorers record  in  their  log-books.  No 
scientist  has  yet  been  audacious 
enough  to  attempt  to  explain,  even  to 
his  own  satisfaction,  toward  what 
lands  these  winged  fowls  are  guided 
by  their  subtle  instinct.  However, 
Olaf  Jansen  has  given  us  a  most  rea- 
sonable explanation. 

The  presence  of  the  open  sea  in  the 
Northland  is  also  explained.  Olaf 
34 


THE  SMOKY  GOD 

Jansen  claims  that  the  northern  aper- 
ture, intake  or  hole,  so  to  speak,  is 
about  fourteen  hundred  miles  across. 
In  connection  with  this,  let  us  read 
what  Explorer  Nansen  writes,  on 
page  288  of  his  book :  "I  have  never 
had  such  a  splendid  sail.  On  to  the 
north,  steadily  north,  with  a  good 
wind,  as  fast  as  steam  and  sail  can 
take  us,  an  open  sea  mile  after  mile, 
watch  after  watch,  through  these  un- 
known regions,  always  clearer  and 
clearer  of  ice,  one  might  almost  say : 
'How  long  will  it  last?'  The  eye  al- 
ways turns  to  the  northward  as  one 
paces  the  bridge.  It  is  gazing  into 
the  future.  But  there  is  always  the 
same  dark  sky  ahead  which  means 
open  sea."  Again,  the  Norw^ood  Re- 
view of  England,  in  its  issue  of  May 
35 


THE  SMOKY  GOD 

10,  1884,  says:  "We  do  not  admit 
that  there  is  ice  up  to  the  Pole — once 
inside  the  great  ice  barrier,  a  new 
world  breaks  upon  the  ex^Dlorer,  the 
climate  is  mild  like  that  of  England, 
and,  afterward,  balmy  as  the  Greek 
Isles." 

Some  of  the  rivers  "within,"  Olaf 
Jansen  claims,  are  larger  than  our 
Mississippi  and  Amazon  rivers  com- 
bined, in  point  of  volume  of  water 
carried;  indeed  their  greatness  is  oc- 
casioned by  their  width  and  depth 
rather  than  their  length,  and  it  is  at 
the  mouths  of  these  mighty  rivers,  as 
they  flow  northward  and  southward 
along  the  inside  surface  of  the  earth, 
that  mammoth  icebergs  are  found, 
some  of  them  fifteen  and  twenty  miles 
36 


THE  SMOKY  GOD 

wide  and  from  forty  to  one  hundi'ed 
miles  in  length. 

Is  it  not  strange  that  there  has 
never  been  an  iceberg  encountered 
either  in  the  Arctic  or  Antarctic 
Ocean  that  is  not  composed  of  fresh 
water  ?  Modern  scientists  claim  that 
freezing  eliminates  the  salt,  but  Olaf 
Jansen  claims  differently. 

Ancient  Hindoo,  Japanese  and  Chi- 
nese writings,  as  well  as  the  hiero- 
glyphics of  the  extinct  races  of  the 
North  American  continent,  all  speak 
of  the  custom  of  sun-worshiping, 
and  it  is  possible,  in  the  startling  light 
of  Olaf  Jansen 's  revelations,  that  the 
people  of  the  inner  world,  lured 
away  by  glimpses  of  the  sun  as  it 
shone  upon  the  inner  surface  of  the 
37 


THE  SMOKY  GOD 

earth,  either  from  the  northern  or  the 
southern  opening,  became  dissatisfied 
with  "The  Smoky  God,"  the  great 
pillar  or  mother  cloud  of  electricity, 
and,  weary  of  their  continuously  mild 
and  pleasant  atmosphere,  followed 
the  brighter  light,  and  were  finally 
led  beyond  the  ice  belt  and  scattered 
over  the  ''outer"  surface  of  the  earth, 
through  Asia,  Europe,  North  Amer- 
ica and,  later,  Africa,  Australia  and 
South  America/ 

^  The  folloiving  quotation  is  signi- 
ficant; ^'It  folloivs  that  fnan  issuing 
from  a  mother-region  still  undeter- 
mined hut  which  a  number  of  consid- 
erations indicate  to  have  been  in  the 
North,  has  radiated  in  several  direc- 
tions; that  his  migrations  have  been 
constantly  from  North  to  South  J' — 
38 


THE  SMOKY  GOD 

It  is  a  notable  fact  that,  as  Ave  ap- 
proach the  Equator,  the  stature  of  the 
human  race  grows  less.  But  the 
Patagonians  of  South  America  are 
probably  the  only  aborigines  from 
the  center  of  the  earth  who  came  out 
through  the  aperture  usually  desig- 
nated as  the  South  Pole,  and  they  are 
called  the  giant  race. 

Olaf  Jansen  avers  that,  in  the  be- 
ginning, the  world  was  created  by 
the  Great  Architect  of  the  Universe, 
so  that  man  might  dwell  upon  its  "in- 
side" surface,  which  has  ever  since 
been  the  habitation  of  the  "chosen." 

They  who  were  di'iven  out  of  the 

M.  Je  Marquis  G.  de  S  a  port  a,  in  Pop- 
ular Science  Monthly,  October,  1883, 
jmge  753. 

39 


THE  SMOKY  GOD 

''Garden  of  Eclen"  brought  their  tra- 
ditional history  with  them. 

The  history  of  the  people  living 
''within"  contains  a  narrative  sug- 
gesting the  story  of  Noah  and  the  ark 
with  which  we  are  familiar.  He 
sailed  away,  as  did  Columbus,  from 
a  certain  port,  to  a  strange  land  he 
had  heard  of  far  to  the  northward, 
carrying  with  him  all  manner  of 
beasts  of  the  fields  and  fowls  of  the 
air,  but  was  never  heard  of  after- 
ward. 

On  the  northern  boundaries  of 
Alaska,  and  still  more  frequently  on 
the  Siberian  coast,  are  found  bone- 
yards  containing  tusks  of  ivory  in 
quantities  so  great  as  to  suggest  the 
burying-places  of  antiquity.  From 
Olaf  Jansen's  account,  they  have 
40 


THE  SMOKY  GOD 

come  from  the  great  prolific  animal 
life  that  abounds  in  the  fields  and 
forests  and  on  the  banks  of  numerous 
rivers  of  the  Inner  World.  The  ma- 
terials were  caught  in  the  ocean  cur- 
rents, or  were  carried  on  ice-floes,  and 
have  accumulated  like  driftwood  on 
the  Siberian  coast.  This  has  been  go- 
ing on  for  ages,  and  hence  these  mys- 
terious bone-yards. 

On  this  subject  William  F.  War- 
ren, in  his  book  already  cited,  pages 
297  and  298,  says:  "The  Arctic 
rocks  tell  of  a  lost  Atlantis  more  won- 
derful than  Plato 's.  The  fossil  ivory 
beds  of  Siberia  excel  everything  of 
the  kind  in  the  world.  From  the 
days  of  Pliny,  at  least,  they  have  con- 
stantly been  undergoing  exploitation, 
and  still  they  are  the  chief  headquar- 
41 


THE  SMOKY  GOD 

ters  of  supply.  The  remains  of  mam- 
motlis  are  so  abundant  that,  as  Grata- 
cap  says,  'the  northern  islands  of 
Siberia  seem  built  up  of  crowded 
bones.'  Another  scientific  writer, 
speaking  of  the  islands  of  New  Sibe- 
ria, northward  of  the  mouth  of  the 
River  Lena,  uses  this  language: 
'Large  quantities  of  ivory  are  dug 
out  of  the  ground  every  year.  In- 
deed, some  of  the  islands  are  believed 
to  be  nothing  but  an  accumulation  of 
drift-timber  and  the  bodies  of  mam- 
moths and  other  antediluvian  ani- 
mals frozen  together. '  From  this  we 
may  infer  that,  during  the  years  that 
have  elapsed  since  the  Russian  con- 
quest of  Siberia,  useful  tusks  from 
more  than  twenty  thousand  mam- 
moths have  been  collected." 
42 


THE  SMOKY  GOD 

But  now  for  the  story  of  Olaf  Jan- 
sen.  I  give  it  in  detail,  as  set  down 
by  himself  in  manuscript,  and  woven 
into  the  tale,  just  as  he  placed  them, 
are  certain  quotations  from  recent 
works  on  Arctic  exploration,  showing 
how  carefully  the  old  Norseman  com- 
pared with  his  own  experiences  those 
of  other  voyagers  to  the  frozen  North. 
Thus  wrote  the  disciple  of  Odin  and 
Thor: 


43 


PART  TWO 
OLAP  JANSEN'S  STORY 


M 


Y  name  is  Olaf  Jansen.  I  am 
a  Norwegian,  although  I  was 
born  in  the  little  seafaring  Russian 
town  of  Uleaborg,  on  the  eastern 
coast  of  the  Gulf  of  Bothnia,  the 
northern  arm  of  the  Baltic  Sea. 

My  parents  were  on  a  fishing  cruise 
in  the  Gulf  of  Bothnia,  and  put  into 
this  Russian  town  of  Uleaborg  at  the 
time  of  my  birth,  being  the  twenty- 
seventh  day  of  October,  1811. 

My  father,  Jens  Jansen,  was  born 
at  Rodwig  on  the  Scandinavian  coast, 
45 


THE  SMOKY  GOD 

near  the  Lofoden  Islands,  but  after 
marrying  made  his  home  at  Stock- 
hohn,  because  my  mother 's  people  re- 
sided in  that  city.  When  seven  years 
old,  I  began  going  with  my  father  on 
his  fishing  trips  along  the  Scandi- 
navian coast. 

Early  in  life  I  displayed  an  apti- 
tude for  books,  and  at  the  age  of  nine 
years  was  placed  in  a  private  school 
in  Stockholm,  remaining  there  until 
I  was  fourteen.  After  this  I  made 
regular  trips  with  my  father  on  all 
his  fishing  voyages. 

My  father  was  a  man  fully  six  feet 
three  in  height,  and  weighed  over 
fifteen  stone,  a  typical  Norseman  of 
the  most  rugged  sort,  and  capable  of 
more  endurance  than  any  other  man 
I  have  ever  known.  He  possessed  the 
46 


THE  SMOKY  GOD 

gentleness  of  a  woman  in  tender  lit- 
tle ways,  yet  liis  determination  and 
will-power  were  beyond  description. 
His  will  admitted  of  no  defeat. 

I  was  in  my  nineteenth  year  when 
we  started  on  what  proved  to  be  our 
last  trip  as  fishermen,  and  which  re- 
sulted in  the  strange  story  that  shall 
be  given  to  the  world, — but  not  until 
I  have  finished  my  earthly  pilgrim- 
age. 

I  dare  not  allow  the  facts  as  I  know 
them  to  be  published  while  I  am  liv- 
ing, for  fear  of  further  humiliation, 
confinement  and  suffering.  First  of 
all,  I  was  put  in  irons  by  the  captain 
of  the  whaling  vessel  that  rescued  me, 
for  no  other  reason  than  that  I  told 
the  truth  about  the  marvelous  discov- 
eries made  by  my  father  and  myself. 
47 


THE  SMOKY  GOD 

But  this  was  far  from  being  the  end 
of  my  tortures. 

After  four  years  and  eight  months ' 
absence  I  reached  Stockholm,  only  to 
find  my  mother  had  died  the  previous 
year,  and  the  property  left  by  my 
parents  in  the  possession  of  my 
mother's  people,  but  it  was  at  once 
made  over  to  me. 

All  might  have  been  well,  had  I 
erased  from  my  memory  the  story  of 
our  adventure  and  of  my  father's  ter- 
rible death. 

Finally,  one  day  I  told  the  story  in 
detail  to  my  uncle,  Gustaf  Osterlind, 
a  man  of  considerable  property,  and 
urged  him  to  fit  out  an  expedition  for 
me  to  make  another  voyage  to  the 
strange  land. 

At  first  I  thought  he  favored  my 
48 


i 

r 

i  ^1 

i 

.•?  -t 

i 

4 

►  >«??' 


^i'^ 


^ 


'Twenty-eight  years — long,  tedious,  frightful  years  of  suffering: 


THE  SMOKY  GOD 

project.  He  seemed  interested,  and 
invited  me  to  go  before  certain  offi- 
cials and  explain  to  them,  as  I  liad 
to  him,  the  story  of  our  travels  and 
discoveries.  Imagine  my  disappoint- 
ment and  horror  when,  upon  the  con- 
clusion of  my  narrative,  certain  pa- 
pers were  signed  by  my  uncle,  and, 
without  warning,  I  found  myself  ar- 
rested and  hurried  away  to  dismal 
and  fearful  confinement  in  a  mad- 
house, where  I  remained  for  twenty- 
eight  years — long,  tedious,  frightful 
years  of  suffering! 

I  never  ceased  to  assert  my  san- 
ity, and  to  protest  against  the  injus- 
tice of  my  confinement.  Finally,  on 
the  seventeenth  of  October,  1862,  I 
was  released.  My  uncle  was  dead, 
and  the  friends  of  my  youth  were  now 
51 


THE  SMOKY  GOD 

strangers.  Indeed,  a  man  over  fifty 
years  old,  whose  only  laiown  record 
is  that  of  a  madman,  has  no  friends. 

I  was  at  a  loss  to  know  what  to  do 
for  a  living,  but  instinctively  turned 
toward  the  harbor  where  fishing  boats 
in  great  numbers  were  anchored,  and 
within  a  week  I  had  shipped  with  a 
fisherman  by  the  name  of  Yan  Han- 
sen, who  was  starting  on  a  long  fish- 
ing cruise  to  the  Lofoden  Islands. 

Here  my  earlier  years  of  trainmg 
proved  of  the  very  greatest  advan- 
tage, especially  in  enabling  me  to 
make  myself  useful.  This  was  but 
the  beginning  of  other  trips,  and  by 
frugal  economy  I  was,  in  a  few  years, 
able  to  own  a  fishing-brig  of  my  own. 

For  twenty-seven  years  thereafter 
52 


THE  SMOKY  GOD 

I  followed  the  sea  as  a  fisherman,  five 
years  working  for  others,  and  the  last 
twenty-two  for  myself. 

During  all  these  years  I  w^as  a  most 
diligent  student  of  books,  as  well  as 
a  hard  worker  at  my  business,  but  I 
took  great  care  not  to  mention  to  any- 
one the  story  concerning  the  discov- 
eries made  by  my  father  and  myself. 
Even  at  this  late  day  I  would  be  fear- 
ful of  having  any  one  see  or  know  the 
things  I  am  writing,  and  the  records 
and  majos  I  have  in  my  keeping. 
When  my  days  on  earth  are  finished, 
I  shall  leave  maps  and  records  that 
will  enlighten  and,  I  hope,  benefit 
mankind. 

The  memory  of  my  long  confine- 
ment with  maniacs,  and  all  the  horri- 
53 


THE  SMOKY  GOD 

ble  anguish  and  sufferings  are  too 
vivid  to  warrant  my  taking  further 
chances. 

In  1889  I  sold  out  my  fishing  boats, 
and  found  I  had  accumulated  a  for- 
tune quite  sufficient  to  keep  me  the 
remainder  of  my  life.  I  then  came 
to  America. 

For  a  dozen  years  my  home  was  in 
Illinois,  near  Batavia,  where  I  gath- 
ered most  of  the  books  in  my  present 
library,  though  I  brought  many 
choice  volumes  from  Stockholm. 
Later,  I  came  to  Los  Angeles,  arriv- 
ing here  March  4,  1901.  The  date  I 
well  remember,  as  it  was  President 
McKinley's  second  inauguration  day. 
I  bought  this  humble  home  and  de- 
termined, here  in  the  privacy  of  my 
own  abode,  sheltered  by  my  own  vine 
54 


THE  SMOKY  GOD 

and  fig-tree,  and  with  my  books  about 
me,  to  make  maps  and  drawings  of 
the  new  lands  we  had  discovered,  and 
also  to  wante  the  story  in  detail  from 
the  time  my  father  and  I  left  Stock- 
holm mitil  the  tragic  event  that 
parted  us  in  the  Antarctic  Ocean.  - 
I  well  remember  that  w^e  left  Stock- 
holm in  our  fishing-sloop  on  the  third 
day  of  April,  1829,  and  sailed  to  the 
southward,  leaving  Gothland  Island 
to  the  left  and  Oeland  Island  to  the 
right.  A  few  days  later  we  suc- 
ceeded in  doubling  Sandhommar 
Point,  and  made  our  way  through 
the  sound  which  separates  Denmark 
from  the  Scandinavian  coast.  In 
due  time  we  put  in  at  the  town  of 
Christiansand,  w^here  we  rested  two 
days,  and  then  started  around  the 
55 


THE  SMOKY  GOD 

Scandinavian  coast  to  the  westward, 
bound  for  the  Lofoden  Islands. 

My  father  was  in  high  sj^irit,  be- 
cause of  the  excellent  and  gratifying 
returns  he  had  received  from  our  last 
catch  by  marketing  at  Stockholm,  in- 
stead of  selling  at  one  of  the  seafar- 
ing towns  along  the  Scandinavian 
coast.  He  was  especially  pleased 
with  the  sale  of  some  ivory  tusks  that 
he  had  found  on  the  west  coast  of 
Franz  Joseph  Land  during  one  of  his 
northern  cruises  the  previous  year, 
and  he  expressed  the  hope  that  this 
time  we  might  again  be  fortunate 
enough  to  load  our  little  fishmg-sloop 
with  ivory,  instead  of  cod,  herring, 
mackerel  and  salmon. 

We  23ut  in  at  Hammerfest,  latitude 
56 


•^^^¥*-- 


"A   vessel   larger   than    our   little   fishing   sloop    could   not    have 
threaded   its    zvay   among    the   icebergs." 


THE  SMOKY  GOD 

seventy-one  degrees  and  forty  min- 
utes, for  a  few  days'  rest.  Here  we 
remained  one  week,  laying  in  an  ex- 
tra supply  of  provisions  and  several 
casks  of  drinking-water,  and  then 
sailed  toward  Spitzbergen. 

For  the  first  few  days  we  had  an 
open  sea  and  a  favoring  wind,  and 
then  we  encountered  much  ice  and 
many  icebergs.  A  vessel  larger  than 
our  little  fishing-sloop  could  not  pos- 
sibly have  threaded  its  way  among 
the  labj^rinth  of  icebergs  or  squeezed 
through  the  barely  open  channels. 
These  monster  bergs  presented  an 
endless  succession  of  crystal  palaces, 
of  massive  cathedrals  and  fantastic 
mountain  ranges,  grim  and  sentinel- 
like, immovable  as  some  towering  cliff 
59 


THE  SMOKY  GOD 

of  solid  rock,  standing  silent  as  a 
sphinx,  resisting  the  restless  waves 
of  a  fretful  sea. 

After  many  narrow  escapes,  we  ar- 
rived at  Spitzbergen  on  the  23d  of 
June,  and  anchored  at  Wijade  Bay 
for  a  short  time,  where  we  were  quite 
successful  in  our  catches.  We  then 
lifted  anchor  and  sailed  through  the 
Hinlopen  Strait,  and  coasted  along 
the  North-East-Land/ 

A  strong  wind  came  up  from  the 
southwest,  and  my  father  said  that  we 
had  better  take  advantage  of  it  and 
try  to  reach  Franz  Josef  Land,  where, 

^  It  ivill  he  7'ememl)ered  that  An- 
dree  started  on  Ids  fatal  halloo }i  voy- 
age from  the  northwest  coast  of  Spitz- 
hergen. 

60 


THE  SMOKY  GOD 

the  3'^ear  before  he  had,  by  accident, 
foimd  the  ivory  tusks  that  had 
brought  him  such  a  good  price  at 
Stockhohn. 

Never,  before  or  since,  have  I  seen 
so  many  sea-fowl;  they  were  so  nu- 
merous that  they  hid  the  rocks  on  the 
coast  line  and  darkened  the  sky. 

For  several  days  we  sailed  along 
the  rocky  coast  of  Franz  Josef  Land. 
Finally,  a  favoring  wind  came  up  that 
enabled  us  to  make  the  West  Coast, 
and,  after  sailing  twenty-four  hours, 
we  came  to  a  beautiful  inlet. 

One  could  hardly  believe  it  was  the 
far  Northland.  The  i^lace  was  green 
with  growing  vegetation,  and  while 
the  area  did  not  comprise  more  than 
one  or  two  acres,  yet  the  air  was 
61 


THE  SMOKY  GOD 

warm  and  tranquil.  It  seemed  to  be 
at  that  point  where  the  Gulf  Stream 's 
influence  is  most  keenly  felt/ 

On  the  east  coast  there  were  nu- 
merous icebergs,  yet  here  we  were  in 
open  water.     Far  to  the  west  of  us, 

^  Sir  John  Barrotv,  Bart.,  F.R.S., 
in  his  work  entitled  ^'Voyages  of  Dis- 
covery and  Research  Within  the 
Arctic  Regions/^  says  on  page  57: 
^^Mr.  Beechey  refers  to  what  has  fre- 
quently 'been  found  and  noticed — the 
mildness  of  the  temperature  on  the 
tvestern  coast  of  Spitzhergen,  there 
heing  little  or  no  sensation  of  cold, 
though  the  thermometer  anight  he 
only  a  feiv  degrees  above  the  freezing- 
point.  The  brilliant  and  lively  effect 
of  a  clear  day,  when  the  sun  shines 
forth  with  a  pure  sky,  whose  azure 
hue  is  so  intense  as  to  find  no  parallel 
even  in  the  boasted  Italian  sky." 
62 


THE  SMOKY  GOD 

however,  were  icepacks,  and  still  far- 
ther to  the  westward  the  ice  appeared 
like  ranges  of  low  hills.  In  front  of 
us,  and  directly  to  the  north,  lay  an 
open  sea/ 

My  father  was  an  ardent  believer 
in  Odin  and  Thor,  and  had  frequently 
told  nie  they  were  gods  who  came 
from  far  beyond  the  "North  Wind." 

There  was  a  tradition,  my  father 

^  Captain  Kane,  on  page  299,  quot- 
ing from  Morton's  Journal  on  Mon- 
day, the  26th  of  December,  says: 
'^As  far  as  I  could  see,  the  open  pas- 
sages ivere  fifteen  miles  or  more  ivide, 
with  sometimes  mashed  ice  separating 
them.  But  it  is  all  small  ice,  and  I 
think  it  either  drives  out  to  the  open 
space  to  the  north  or  rots  and  sinks, 
as  I  could  see  none  ahead  to  the 
north." 

63 


THE  SMOKY  GOD 

explained,  that  still  farther  north- 
ward was  a  land  more  beautifnl  than 
any  that  mortal  man  had  ever  known, 
and  that  it  was  inhabited  by  the 
"Chosen."^ 

My  youthful  imagination  was  fired 
by  the  ardor,  zeal  and  religious  fervor 

^  We  find  the  folloiving  in 
'^Deutsclie  Mi/thologie/'  page  778, 
from  the  pen  of  Jakob  Grinun; 
^'Then  the  sons  of  Bor  huilt  in  the 
middle  of  the  universe  the  city  called 
Asgard,  where  dtvell  the  gods  and 
their  kindred,  and  from  that  ah  ode 
work  out  so  many  tvondrous  things 
both  on  the  earth  and  in  the  heavens 
above  it.  There  is  in  that  city  a  place 
called  Hlidskjalf ,  and  tvhen  Odin  is 
seated  there  upon  his  lofty  throne  he 
sees  over  the  wJiole  world  and  dis- 
cerns all  the  actions  of  men.'' 
64 


THE  SMOKY  GOD 

of  my  good  father,  and  I  exclaimed: 
"Why  uot  sail  to  this  goodly  land? 
The  sky  is  fair,  the  wind  favorable 
and  the  sea  open." 

Even  now  I  can  see  the  expression 
of  pleasurable  surprise  on  his  comite- 
nance  as  he  turned  toward  me  and 
asked:  "My  son,  are  you  willing  to 
go  with  me  and  explore — ^to  go  far 
beyond  where  man  has  ever  ven- 
tured?" I  answered  affirmatively. 
"Very  well,"  he  replied.  "May  the 
god  Odin  protect  us!"  and,  quickly 
adjusting  the  sails,  he  glanced  at  our 
compass,  turned  the  prow  in  due 
northerly  direction  through  an  open 
channel,  and  our  vo^^age  had  begun. ^ 

'Hall  writes,  on  page  288:     ''On 
the  23rd  of  Januarij  the  two  Esqui- 
maux, accompanied  hij  two  of  the  sea- 
65 


THE  SMOKY  GOD 

The  sun  was  low  in  tlie  horizon,  as 
it  was  still  the  early  summer.  In- 
deed, we  had  almost  four  months  of 
day  ahead  of  us  before  the  frozen 
night  could  come  on  again. 

Our  little  fishing-sloop  sprang  for- 
ward as  if  eager  as  ourselves  for  ad- 
venture. Within  thirty-six  hours  we 
were  out  of  sight  of  the  highest  point 
on  the  coast  line  of  Franz  Josef 
Land.  We  seemed  to  be  in  a  strong 
current  running  north  by  northeast. 
Far  to  the  right  and  to  the  left  of  us 
were  icebergs,  but  our  little  sloop 
bore  down  on  the  narrows  and  passed 
through  channels  and  out  into  open 
seas — channels  so  narrow  in  places 

men,  went  to  Cape  Liipton.    They  re- 
ported a  sea  of  open  water  extending 
as  far  as  the  eye  eotdd  reach/' 
66 


THE  SMOKY  GOD 

that,  had  our  craft  been  other  than 
small,  we  never  could  have  gotten 
through. 

On  the  third  day  we  came  to  an  is- 
land. Its  shores  were  washed  by  an 
open  sea.  My  father  determined  to 
land  and  explore  for  a  day.  This 
new  land  was  destitute  of  timber,  but 
we  found  a  large  accumulation  of 
drift-wood  on  the  northern  shore. 
Some  of  the  trunks  of  the  trees  were 
forty  feet  long  and  two  feet  in  diam- 
eter.^ 

'  Greely  tells  us  in  vol.  1,  page  100, 
that:  ''Privates  Connell  and  Fred- 
erick found  a  large  coniferous  tree  on 
the  heach,  just  above  the  extreme 
high-water  mark.  It  was  nearly 
thirty  inches  in  circumference,  some 
thirty  feet  long,  and  had  apparently 
been  carried  to  that  point  by  a  cur- 
67 


THE  SMOKY  GOD 

After  one  daj^'s  exploration  of  the 
coast  line  of  this  island,  we  lifted  an- 
chor and  turned  our  prow  to  the  north 
in  an  open  sea.^ 

I  remember  that  neither  my  father 
nor  myself  had  tasted  food  for  almost 

rent  within  a  couple  of  years.  A 
portion  of  it  was  cut  up  for  fire-wood, 
and  for  the  first  time  in  that  valley, 
a  bright,  cheery  camp-fire  gave  com- 
fort to  man/' 

^  Dr.  Kane  says,  on  page  379  of 
his  works:  ^^I  cannot  imagine  tvhat 
becomes  of  the  ice.  A  strong  current 
sets  in  constantly  to  the  north;  but, 
from  altitudes  of  more  than  five  hun- 
dred feet,  I  saw  only  narrow  strips  of 
ice,  with  great  spaces  of  open  water, 
from  ten  to  fifteen  miles  in  breadth, 
between  them.  It  must,  therefore, 
either  go  to  an  open  space  in  the 
north,  or  dissolve.' ' 
68 


THE  SMOKY  GOD 

thirty  hours.  Perhaps  this  was  be- 
cause of  the  tension  of  excitement 
about  our  strange  voyage  in  waters 
farther  north,  my  father  said,  than 
anyone  had  ever  before  been.  Active 
mentality  had  dulled  the  demands  of 
the  physical  needs. 

Instead  of  the  cold  being  intense  as 
we  had  anticipated,  it  was  really 
warmer  and  more  pleasant  than  it 
had  been  while  in  Hammerf  est  on  the 
north  coast  of  Norway,  some  six 
weeks  before/ 

^  Captain  Peary's  second  voyage  re- 
lates another  circumstance  which  may 
serve  to  con'firm  a  conjecture  which 
has  long  heen  maintained  'by  some, 
that  an  open  sea,  free  of  ice,  exists 
at  or  near  the  Pole.  ^^On  the  second 
of  November,''  says  Peary,  '^the  wind 
freshened  up  to  a  gale  from  north  by 
69 


THE  SMOKY  CJOD 

We  both  frankly  admitted  that  we 
were  very  hungry,  and  forthwith  I 
prepared  a  substantial  meal  from  our 
well-stored  larder.  When  we  had 
partaken  heartily  of  the  rej^ast,  I 
told  my  father  I  believed  I  would 
sleep,  as  I  was  beginning  to  feel 
quite  di'owsy.  ''Very  well,"  he  re- 
plied, "I  will  keep  the  watch." 

I  have  no  way  to  determine  how 

west,  loivered  the  thermometer  before 
midnight  to  5  degrees,  tvhereas,  a  rise 
of  wind  at  Melville  Island  was  gen- 
erally accompanied  hy  a  simxdtaneoiis 
rise  in  the  thermometer  at  low  tem- 
peratures. May  not  this/'  he  asks, 
''he  occasioned  hy  the  wind  hlowing 
over  an  open  sea  in  the  quarter  from 
which  the  wind  blows f  And  tend  to 
confirm  the  opinion  that  at  or  near  the 
Pole  an  open  sea  exists  f 

70 


THE  SMOKY  GOD 

long  I  slept ;  I  only  know  that  I  was 
rudely  awakened  by  a  terrible  com- 
motion of  the  sloop.  To  my  surprise, 
I  foimd  my  father  sleeping  soundly. 
I  cried  out  lustily  to  him,  and  start- 
ing up,  he  sprang  quickly  to  his  feet. 
Indeed,  had  he  not  instantly  clutched 
the  rail,  he  would  certainly  have  been 
thrown  into  the  seething  waves. 

A  fierce  snow-storm  was  raging. 
The  wind  was  directly  astern,  driving 
our  sloop  at  a  terrific  speed,  and  was 
threatening  every  moment  to  capsize 
us.  There  was  no  time  to  lose,  the 
sails  had  to  be  lowered  immediately. 
Our  boat  was  writhing  in  convulsions. 
A  few  icebergs  we  knew  w^re  on 
either  side  of  us,  but  fortunately  the 
channel  was  open  directly  to  the 
north.  But  would  it  remain  so  ?  In 
71 


THE  SMOKY  GOD 

front  of  us,  girding  the  horizon  from 
left  to  right,  was  a  vaporish  fog  or 
mist,  black  as  Egyptian  night  at  the 
water's  edge,  and  white  like  a  steam- 
cloud  toward  the  top,  which  was  fi- 
nally lost  to  view  as  it  blended  with 
the  great  white  flakes  of  falling  snow. 
Whether  it  covered  a  treacherous  ice- 
berg, or  some  other  hidden  obstacle 
against  which  our  little  sloop  would 
dash  and  send  us  to  a  watery  grave, 
or  was  merely  the  phenomenon  of  an 
Arctic  fog,  there  was  no  way  to  deter- 
mine.^ 

^  On  page  284  of  his  tuorks,  Hall 
writes:  ''From  the  top  of  Provi- 
dence Berg,  a  dark  fog  tvas  seen  to 
the  north,  indicating  water.  At  10 
a.  m.  three  of  the  men  {Kruger,  Nin- 
demann  and  Ilohhy)  went  to  Cape 
72 


"By  what  miracle  wc  escaped  being  dashed  to  destruction,  I  do 
not  knoiij." 


THE  SMOKY  GOD 

By  what  miracle  we  escaped  being 
dashed  to  utter  destruction,  I  do  not 
know.  I  remember  our  little  craft 
creaked  and  groaned,  as  if  its  joints 
were  breaking.  It  rocked  and  stag- 
gered to  and  fro  as  if  clutched  by 
some  fierce  undertow  of  whirlpool  or 
maelstrom. 

Fortunately  our  compass  had  been 
fastened  with  long  screws  to  a  cross- 
beam. Most  of  our  provisions,  how- 
ever, were  tumbled  out  and  swept 
away  from  the  deck  of  the  cuddy,  and 

Lupton  to  ascertain  if  possible  the  ex- 
tent of  the  open  water.  On  their  re- 
turn they  reported  several  open 
spaces  and  much  young  ice — not  more 
than  a  day  old,  so  thin  that  it  was 
easily  broken  by  throwing  pieces  of 
ice  upon  it/' 

75 


THE  SMOKY  GOD 

had  we  not  taken  the  precaution  at 
the  very  beginning  to  tie  ourselves 
firmly  to  the  masts  of  the  sloop,  we 
should  have  been  swept  into  the  lash- 
ing sea. 

Above  the  deafening  tmnult  of  the 
raging  waves,  I  heard  my  father's 
voice.  '*Be  courageous,  my  son,"  he 
shouted,  "Odin  is  the  god  of  the 
waters,  the  companion  of  the  brave, 
and  he  is  with  us.     Fear  not." 

To  me  it  seemed  there  was  no  pos- 
sibility of  our  escaping  a  horrible 
death.  The  little  sloop  was  shipping 
water,  the  snow  was  falling  so  fast 
as  to  be  blinding,  and  the  waves  were 
tumbling  over  our  counters  in  reck- 
less white-spraj^ed  fury.  There  was 
no  telling  what  instant  we  should  be 
dashed  against  some  drifting  ice- 
76 


THE  SMOKY  GOD 

pack.  The  tremendous  swells  would 
heave  us  up  to  the  very  peaks  of 
mouutainous  waves,  then  j)luiige  us 
down  into  the  depths  of  the  sea's 
trough  as  if  our  fishing-sloop  were  a 
fragile  shell.  Gigantic  white-capped 
waves,  like  veritable  walls,  fenced  us 
in,  fore  and  aft. 

This  terrible  nerve-racking  ordeal, 
with  its  nameless  horrors  of  sus^Dense 
and  agony  of  fear  indescribable,  con- 
tinued for  more  than  three  hours,  and 
all  the  time  we  were  being  driven  for- 
ward at  fierce  speed.  Then  suddenly, 
as  if  growing  weary  of  its  frantic  ex- 
ertions, the  wmd  began  to  lessen  its 
fury  and  by  degrees  to  die  down. 

At  last  we  were  in  a  perfect  calm. 
The  fog  mist  had  also  disappeared, 
and  before  us  lay  an  iceless  channel 
77 


THE  SMOKY  GOD 

perhaps  ten  or  fifteen  miles  wide, 
with  a  few  icebergs  far  away  to  our 
right,  and  an  intermittent  archipel- 
ago of  smaller  ones  to  the  left. 

I  watched  my  father  closel}^  deter- 
mined to  remain  silent  until  he  spoke. 
Presently  he  untied  the  rope  from  his 
waist  and,  without  saying  a  word,  be- 
gan working  the  pumps,  which  for- 
tunately were  not  damaged,  relieving 
the  sloop  of  the  water  it  had  shipped 
in  the  madness  of  the  storm. 

He  put  uj)  the  sloop's  sails  as 
calmly  as  if  castmg  a  fishing-net,  and 
then  remarked  that  we  were  read}^  for 
a  favoring  wind  when  it  came.  His 
courage  and  persistence  were  truly 
remark»able. 

On  investigation  we  found  less  than 
one-third  of  our  provisions  remain- 
78 


THE  SMOKY  GOD 

ing,  while  to  our  utter  dismay,  we  dis- 
coA^ered  that  our  water-casks  had  been 
swept  overboard  during  the  violent 
plungings  of  our  boat. 

Two  of  our  water-casks  were  in  the 
main  hold,  but  both  were  empty.  We 
had  a  fair  sux)ply  of  food,  but  no 
fresh  water.  I  realized  at  once  the 
awfulness  of  our  position.  Presently 
I  was  seized  with  a  consuming  thirst. 
*'It  is  indeed  bad,"  remarked  my 
father.  "However,  let  us  dry  our 
bedraggled  clothing,  for  we  are 
soaked  to  the  skin.  Trust  to  the  god 
Odin,  my  son.    Do  not  give  up  hope. ' ' 

The  sun  was  beating  down  slant- 
ingty,  as  if  we  were  in  a  southern 
latitude,  instead  of  in  the  far  North- 
land. It  was  swinging  around,  its 
orbit  ever  visible  and  rising  higher 
79 


THE  SMOKY  GOD 

and  higher  each  day,  frequently  mist- 
covered,  yet  always  peering  through 
the  lacework  of  clouds  like  some  fret- 
ful eye  of  fate,  guarding  the  myste- 
rious Northland  and  jealously  watch- 
ing the  pranks  of  man.  Far  to  our 
right  the  rays  decking  the  prisms  of 
icebergs  were  gorgeous.  Their  re- 
flections emitted  flashes  of  garnet,  of 
diamond,  of  sapphire.  A  pyrotech- 
nic panorama  of  countless  colors  and 
shapes,  while  below  could  be  seen  the 
green-tinted  sea,  and  above,  the  pur- 
ple sky. 


80 


PART  THREE 
BEYOND  THE  NORTH  WIND 

I  TRIED  to  forget  my  thirst  by 
busjdiig  myself  with  bringing  up 
some  food  and  an  empty  vessel  from 
the  hold.  Reaching  over  the  side- 
rail,  I  filled  the  vessel  with  water  for 
the  purpose  of  laving  mj'-  hands  and 
face.  To  my  astonishment,  when  the 
water  came  in  contact  with  my  lips,  I 
could  taste  no  salt.  I  was  startled  by 
the  discovery.  "Father!"  I  fairly 
gasped,  ''the  water,  the  water;  it  is 
fresh!"  "What,  Olaf?"  exclaimed 
81 


THE  SMOKY  GOD 

my  father,  glancing  hastily  around. 
' '  Surely  you  are  mistaken.  There  is 
no  land.  You  are  going  mad." 
''But  taste  it!"  I  cried. 

And  thus  we  made  the  discovery 
that  the  water  was  indeed  fresh,  ab- 
solutely so,  without  the  least  briny 
taste  or  even  the  suspicion  of  a  salty 
flavor. 

We  forthwith  filled  our  two  re- 
maining water-casks,  and  my  father 
declared  it  was  a  heavenly  dispensa- 
tion of  mercy  from  the  gods  Odin 
and  Thor. 

We  were  almost  beside  ourselves 
with  joy,  but  hunger  bade  us  end  our 
enforced  fast.  Now  that  we  had 
found  fresh  water  in  the  o^^en  sea, 
what  might  we  not  ex]Dect  in  this 
strange  latitude  where  ship  had  never 
82 


THE  SMOKY  GOD 

before  sailed  and  the  splash  of  an  oar 
had  never  been  heard  ?  ^ 

We  had  scarcely  appeased  our  hun- 
ger when  a  breeze  began  filling  the 
idle  sails,  and,  glancing  at  the  com- 

*  In  vol.  I,  page  196,  Nansen  writes: 
''It  is  a  peculiar  phenomenon, — tJiis 
dead  water.  We  had  at  present  a 
better  opportunity  of  studying  it  than 
we  desired.  It  occurs  where  a  sur- 
face layer  of  fresh  water  rests  tipon 
the  salt  water  of  the  sea,  and  this 
fresh  water  is  carried  along  with  the 
ship  gliding  on  the  heavier  sea  be- 
neath it  as  if  on  a  fixed  foundation. 
The  difference  between  the  two  strata 
tvas  in  this  case  so  great  that  tvhile 
we  had  drinhing  water  on  the  surface, 
tJie  water  we  got  from  the  bottotn  cock 
of  the  engine-room  was  far  too  salt 
to  be  used  for  the  boiler.'' 
83 


THE  SMOKY  GOD 

pass,  we  found  the  northern  point 
pressing  hard  against  the  glass. 

In  response  to  my  surprise,  my 
father  said,  *'I  have  heard  of  this  be- 
fore ;  it  is  what  they  call  the  dipping 
of  the  needle. ' ' 

We  loosened  the  compass  and 
turned  it  at  right  angles  with  the  sur- 
face of  the  sea  before  its  point  would 
free  itself  from  the  glass  and  point 
according  to  unmolested  attraction. 
It  shifted  uneasily,  and  seemed  as  un- 
steady as  a  drunken  man,  but  finally 
pointed  a  course. 

Before  this  we  thought  the  wind 
was  carrying  us  north  by  northwest, 
but,  with  the  needle  free,  we  discov- 
ered, if  it  could  be  relied  upon,  that 
we  were  sailing  slightly  north  by 
84 


THE  SMOKY  GOD 

northeast.     Our  course,  however,  was 
ever  tending  northward.^ 

^  In  volume  II,  pages  18  and  19, 
Nansen  writes  about  the  inclination 
of  the  needle.  Speaking  of  Johnson, 
his  aide:  ^'One  day — it  was  No- 
venvbei^  24:th — he  came  in  to  supper  a 
little  after  six  o'clock,  quite  alarmed, 
and  said:  ^There  has  just  been  a 
singular  inclination  of  the  needle  in 
twenty-four  degrees.  And  remarka- 
bly enough,  its  northern  extremity 
pointed  to  the  east.'  " 

We  again  find  in  Peary's  first  voy- 
age— page  67, — the  folloiving:  ''It 
had  been  observed  that  from  the  mo- 
ment they  had  entered  Lancaster 
Sound,  the  motion  of  the  compass 
needle  was  very  sluggish,  and  both 
this  and  its  deviation  increased  as 
they  progressed  to  the  westward,  and 
continued  to  do  so  in  descending  this 
85 


THE  SMOKY  GOD 

The  sea  was  serenely  smooth,  with 
hardly  a  choppy  wave,  and  the  wind 
brisk  and  exhilarating.  The  sun's 
rays,  while  striking  us  aslant,  fur- 
nished tranquil  warmth.  And  thus 
time  wore  on  day  after  day,  and  we 
found  from  the  record  in  our  log- 
book, we  had  been  sailing  eleven  days 
since  the  storm  in  the  oj^en  sea. 

By  strictest  economy,  our  food  was 
holding  out  fairly  well,  but  beginning 
to  rmi  low.    In  the  meantime,  one  of 

inlet.  Having  readied  latitude  73 
degrees,  they  tuitnessed  for  the  first 
time  the  curious  phenomenon  of  the 
directive  power  of  the  needle  'becom- 
ing so  weak  as  to  he  completely  over- 
come hy  the  attraction  of  the  ship,  so 
that  the  needle  might  now  he  said  to 
point  to  the  north  pole  of  the  ship." 

86 


THE  SMOKY  GOD 

our  casks  of  water  had  been  ex- 
hausted, and  my  father  said:  ''We 
will  fill  it  again."  But,  to  our  dis- 
may, we  found  the  water  was  now  as 
salt  as  in  the  region  of  the  Lofoden 
Islands  oH  the  coast  of  Norway. 
This  necessitated  our  being  extreme- 
ly careful  of  the  remaining  cask. 

I  found  myself  wanting  to  sleep 
much  of  the  time ;  whether  it  was  the 
effect  of  the  exciting  experience  of 
sailing  in  unknown  waters,  or  the  re- 
laxation from  the  awful  excitement 
incident  to  our  adventure  in  a  storm 
at  sea,  or  due  to  want  of  food,  I  could 
not  say. 

I    frequently    lay    down    on    the 

bunker  of  our  little  sloop,  and  looked 

far  up  into  the  blue  dome  of  the  sky ; 

and,   notwithstanding   the   sim   was 

87 


THE  SMOKY  GOD 

shining  far  away  in  the  east,  I  always 
saw  a  single  star  overhead.  For  sev- 
eral clays,  when  I  looked  for  this  star, 
it  was  always  there  directly  above  us. 

It  was  now,  according  to  our  reck- 
oning, about  the  fii'st  of  August.  The 
sun  was  high  in  the  heavens,  and  was 
so  bright  that  I  could  no  longer  see 
the  one  lone  star  that  attracted  my 
attention  a  few  days  earlier. 

One  day  about  this  time,  my  father 
startled  me  by  calling  my  attention  to 
a  novel  sight  far  in  front  of  us,  almost 
at  the  horizon.  *'It  is  a  mock  sun," 
exclaimed  my  father.  "I  have  read 
of  them;  it  is  called  a  reflection  or 
mirage.     It  will  soon  pass  away. ' ' 

But  this  dull-red,  false  sun,  as  we 
supposed  it  to  be,  did  not  pass  away 
for  several  hours ;  and  while  we  were 
88 


/   /■ 


"//  coidd  hardly  be  said  to   resemble   the  sun   except  in  its 
circular  shape." 


THE  SMOKY  GOD 

unconscious  of  its  emitting  any  rays 
of  light,  still  there  was  no  time  there- 
after when  we  could  not  sweep  the 
horizon  in  front  and  locate  the  illu- 
mination of  the  so-called  false  sun, 
during  a  period  of  at  least  twelve 
hours  out  of  every  twenty-four. 

Clouds  and  mists  would  at  times  al- 
most, but  never  entirely,  hide  its  loca- 
tion. Gradually  it  seemed  to  climb 
higher  in  the  horizon  of  the  uncertain 
purply  sky  as  we  advanced. 

It  could  hardly  be  said  to  resemble 
the  sun,  except  in  its  circular  shape, 
and  when  not  obscured  by  clouds  or 
the  ocean  mists,  it  had  a  hazy-red, 
bronzed  appearance,  which  would 
change  to  a  white  light  like  a  lumi- 
nous cloud,  as  if  reflecting  some 
greater  light  beyond. 
91 


THE  SMOKY  GOB 

We  finally  agreed  in  our  discussion 
of  this  smoky  furnace-colored  sun, 
that,  whatever  the  cause  of  the  phe- 
nomenon, it  was  not  a  reflection  of 
our  sun,  but  a  planet  of  some  sort — a 
reality.^ 

^  Nansen,  on  page  394,  says:  '^To- 
day another  noteworthy  thing  hap- 
pened, which  tvas  that  ahoiit  mid- 
day we  saiv  the  sun,  or  to  he  more 
correct,  an  image  of  the  sun,  for  it 
ivas  only  a  mirage.  A  peculiar  im- 
pression tvas  produced  hy  the  sight 
of  that  glowing  fire  lit  just  above  the 
outermost  edge  of  the  ice.  Accord- 
ing to  the  enthusiastic  descriptions 
given  hy  many  Arctic  travelers  of  the 
first  appearance  of  this  god  of  life 
after  the  long  winter  night,  the  im- 
pression ought  to  he  one  of  juhilant 
excitement ;  hut  it  was  not  so  in  my 
case.  We  had  not  expected  to  see  it 
92 


THE  SMOKY  GOD 

One  da}^  soon  after  this,  I  felt  ex- 
ceedingly drowsy,  and  fell  into  a 
sound  sleej).  But  it  seemed  that  I 
was  almost  immediately  aroused  by 
my  father's  vigorous  shaking  of  me 

for  some  days  yet,  so  that  my  feeling 
ivas  rather  one  of  pain,  of  disappoint- 
ment, that  we  must  have  drifted  far- 
ther south  than  we  thought.  So  it 
was  with  pleasure  I  soon  discovered 
that  it  could  not  he  the  sun  itself. 
The  mirage  ivas  at  first  a  flattened- 
out,  gloiving  red  streak  of  fire  on  the 
Jiorizon;  later  tliere  were  two  streaks, 
the  one  above  the  other,  ivith  a  dark 
space  between;  and  from  the  maintop 
I  coidd  see  four,  or  even  five,  such 
horizontal  lines  directly  over  one  an- 
other, all  of  equal  length,  as  if  one 
coidd  only  imagine  a  square,  dull-red 
sun,  irith  horizontal  dark  streaks 
across  it.'^ 

93 


THE  SMOKY  GOD 

b}^  the  shoulder  and  saving:  "Olaf, 
awaken;  there  is  land  in  sight!" 

I  sprang  to  my  feet,  and  oh!  joy 
unspeakable!  There,  far  in  the  dis- 
tance, yet  directly  in  our  path,  were 
lands  jutting  boldly  into  the  sea. 
The  shore-line  stretched  far  away  to 
the  right  of  us,  as  far  as  the  eye  could 
see,  and  all  along  the  sandy  beach 
were  waves  breaking  into  choppy 
foam,  receding,  then  going  forward 
again,  ever  chanting  in  monotonous 
thunder  tones  the  song  of  the  deep. 
The  banks  were  covered  with  trees 
and  vegetation. 

I  cannot  express  my  feeling  of  ex- 
ultation at  this  discovery.  My  father 
stood  motionless,  with  his  hand  on  the 
tiller,  looking  straight  ahead,  pour- 
ing out  his  heart  in  thankful  prayer 
94 


THE  SMOKY  GOD 

and  thanksgiving  to  the  gods  Odin 
and  Thor. 

In  the  meantime,  a  net  which  we 
found  in  the  stowage  had  been  cast, 
and  we  caught  a  few  fish  that  mate- 
rially added  to  our  dwindling  stock  of 
j)ro  visions. 

The  compass,  which  w^e  had  fas- 
tened back  in  its  place,  in  fear  of  an- 
other storm,  was  still  pointing  due 
north,  and  moving  on  its  pivot,  just 
as  it  had  at  Stockholm.  The  dipping 
of  the  needle  had  ceased.  What  could 
this  mean?  Then,  too,  our  many 
days  of  sailing  had  certainly  carried 
us  far  past  the  North  Pole.  And  yet 
the  needle  continued  to  point  north. 
We  were  sorely  perplexed,  for  surely 
our  direction  was  now  south.^ 

^  Peary's  first  vofjage,  pages  69  and 
95 


THE  SMOKY  GOD 

We  sailed  for  three  days  along  the 
shoreline,  then  came  to  the  mouth  of 
a  fjord  or  river  of  immense  size.  It 
seemed  more  like  a  great  bay,  and  in- 
to this  we  turned  our  fishing-craft, 
the  direction  being  slightly  northeast 
of  south.  By  the  assistance  of  a  fret- 
ful wind  that  came  to  our  aid  about 
twelve  hours  out  of  every  twenty- 
four,  we  continued  to  make  our  way 

70,  says:  ^^On  reacliing  Sir  Byam 
Martin's  Island,  the  nearest  to  Mel- 
ville Island,  the  latitude  of  the  place 
of  ohservation  was  75  degrees-09'- 
23",  a)id  the  longitude  103  degrees- 
44^-37'';  the  dip  of  the  magnetic  nee- 
dle 88  deg rees-2D'-5S"  west  in  the  lon- 
gitude of  91  degrees-'^8\  where  the 
last  observations  on  the  shore  had 
been  viade,  to  1G5  degrees-50'-09", 
east,  at  their  present  station,  so  that 
96 


THE  SMOKY  GOD 

inland,  into  what  afterward  proved  to 
be  a  mighty  river,  and  which  we 
learned  was  called  by  the  inhabitants 
Hiddekel. 

We  continued  our  journey  for  ten 
days  thereafter,  and  found  we  had 
fortunately  attained  a  distance  inland 
where  ocean  tides  no  longer  affected 
the  water,  which  had  become  fresh. 

The  discovery  came  none  to  soon, 
for  our  remaining  cask  of  water  was 

we  had,"  says  Peary,  *Hn  sailing  over 
the  space  included  between  these 
two  meridians,  crossed  immediately 
northward  of  the  magnetic  pole,  and 
had  undoiihtedly  passed  over  one  of 
those  spots  upon  the  globe  where  the 
needle  would  have  been  found  to  vary 
180  degrees,  or  in  other  words,  where 
the  NortJi  Pole  would  have  pointed  to 
tlie  south.'' 

97 


THE  SMOKY  GOD 

well-nigli  exhausted.  We  lost  no 
time  in  replenishing  our  casks,  and 
continued  to  sail  farther  up  the  river 
when  the  wind  was  favorable. 

Along  the  banks  great  forests  miles 
in  extent  could  be  seen  stretching 
away  on  the  shore-line.  The  trees 
were  of  enormous  size.  We  landed 
after  anchoring  near  a  sandy  beach, 
and  waded  ashore,  and  were  rewarded 
by  finding  a  quantity  of  nuts  that 
were  very  palatable  and  satisfjdng  to 
hunger,  and  a  welcome  change  from 
the  monotony  of  our  stock  of  provis- 
ions. 

It  was  about  the  first  of  September, 
over  five  months,  we  calculated,  since 
our  leave-taking  from  Stockholm. 
Suddenly  we  were  frightened  almost 
out  of  our  wits  by  hearing  in  the  far 
98 


THE  SMOKY  GOD 

distance  the  singing  of  people.  Very 
soon  thereafter  we  discovered  a  huge 
ship  gliding  down  the  river  directly 
toward  us.  Those  aboard  were  sing- 
ing in  one  mighty  chorus  that,  echo- 
ing from  bank  to  bank,  sounded  like 
a  thousand  voices,  filling  the  whole 
universe  with  quivering  melody. 
The  accompaniment  was  played  on 
stringed  instruments  not  unlike  our 
harps. 

It  was  a  larger  ship  than  any  we 
had  -ever  seen,  and  was  differently 
constructed.^ 


^  Asiatic  Mythology, — page  240, 
Paradise  Foiincl" — from  translation 
dy  Sayce,  in  a  hook  called  ^^ Records 
of  the  Past,"  we  were  told  of  a 
^^dicelling"  which  ^Hhe  gods  created 
for"  the  first  human  beings, — a  dwell- 
99 


<i 


THE  SMOKY  GOD 

At  this  particular  time  our  sloop 
was  becalmed,  and  not  far  from  the 
shore.  The  bank  of  the  river,  cov- 
ered with  mammoth  trees,  rose  up 
several  hundred  feet  in  beautiful 
fashion.  We  seemed  to  be  on  the 
edge  of  some  primeval  forest  that 
doubtless  stretched  far  inland. 

The  immense  craft  paused,  and  al- 
most immediately  a  boat  was  lowered 
and  six  men  of  gigantic  stature  rowed 
to  our  little  fishing-sloop.  They 
spoke  to  us  in  a  strange  language. 
We  knew  from  their  manner,  how- 

mg  in  which  they  '^became  greaf  and 
'increased  in  numhers/'  and  tlie  lo- 
cation of  which  is  described  in  words 
exactly  corresponding  to  those  of 
Iranian,  Indian,  Chinese,  Eddaic  and 
Aztecan  literature;  namely,  ''in  the 
center  of  the  earth." — Warren. 
100 


"They  spoke   to   us   in   a   strange   language." 


THE  SMOKY  GOD 

ever,  that  they  were  not  unfriendly. 
They  talked  a  great  deal  among  them- 
selves, and  one  of  them  laughed  im- 
moderately, as  though  in  finding  us  a 
queer  discovery  had  been  made.  One 
of  them  spied  our  compass,  and  it 
seemed  to  interest  them  more  than 
any  other  part  of  our  slooj). 

Finally,  the  leader  motioned  as  if 
to  ask  whether  we  w^ere  willing  to 
leave  our  craft  to  go  on  board  their 
ship.  *'AVhat  say  you,  my  son?" 
asked  my  father.  "They  cannot  do 
any  more  than  kill  us. ' ' 

"They  seem  to  be  kincll}-  disposed,'* 
I  replied,  "although  what  tcrriljle 
giants!  They  nmst  be  the  select  six 
of  the  kingdom's  crack  regiment. 
Just  look  at  their  great  size." 

"We  may  as  well  go  willingly  as  be 
103 


THE  SMOKY  GOD 

taken  by  force, ' '  said  my  father,  smil- 
ing, ''for  they  are  certainly  able  to 
capture  us."  Thereupon  he  made 
known,  by  signs,  that  we  were  ready 
to  accompany  them. 

Within  a  few  minutes  we  were  on 
board  the  ship,  and  half  an  hour  later 
our  little  fishing-craft  had  been  lifted 
bodily  out  of  the  water  by  a  strange 
sort  of  hook  and  tackle,  and  set  on 
board  as  a  curiosity. 

There  were  several  hundred  people 
on  board  this,  to  us,  manunoth  ship, 
which  we  discovered  was  called  ' '  The 
Naz,"  meaning,  as  we  afterward 
learned,  "Pleasure,"  or  to  give  a 
more  proper  interpretation,  "Pleas- 
ure Excursion"  shij). 

If  my  father  and  I  were  curiously 
104 


THE  SMOKY  GOD 

observed  by  the  ship 's  occupants,  this 
strange  race  of  giants  offered  us  an 
equal  amount  of  wonderment. 

There  was  not  a  single  man  aboard 
who  would  not  have  measured  fully 
twelve  feet  in  height.  They  all  wore 
full  beards,  not  particularly  long,  but 
seemingly  short-cropped.  They  had 
mild  and  beautiful  faces,  exceedingly 
fair,  with  ruddy  complexions.  TBe 
hair  and  beard  of  some  were  black, 
others  sandy,  and  still  others  yellow. 
The  captain,  as  we  designated  the 
dignitary  in  command  of  the  great 
vessel,  was  fully  a  head  taller  than 
any  of  his  companions.  The  women 
averaged  from  ten  to  eleven  feet  in 
height.  Their  features  were  espe- 
cially regular  and  refined,  while  their 
105 


THE  SMOKY  GOD 

complexion  was  of  a  most  delicate 
tint  heightened  by  a  healthful  glow/ 
Both  men  and  women  seemed  to 
possess  that  particular  ease  of  man- 
ner which  we  deem  a  sign  of  good 
])reeding,  and,  notwithstanding  their 
huge  statures,  there  was  nothing 
about  them  suggesting  awkwardness. 
As  I  was  a  lad  in  only  my  nineteenth 

^  ^^ According  to  all  procurable  data, 
that  spot  at  the  era  of  man's  appear- 
ance upon  the  stage  was  in  the  now 
lost  ^Miocene  continent/  tvhicli  then 
surrounded  the  Arctic  Pole,  That  in 
that  true,  original  Eden  some  of  the 
early  generations  of  men  attained  to 
a  stature  and  longevity  uneqiialed  in 
any  countries  known  to  postdiluvian 
history  is  hy  no  means  scientifically 
incredible/' — Wm.  F.  Warren,  ^'Par- 
adise Found,"  p.  284. 
106 


THE  SMOKY  GOD 

year,  I  was  doubtless  looked  upon  as 
a  true  Tom  Thumb.  My  father's  six 
feet  three  did  not  lift  the  top  of  his 
head  above  the  waist  line  of  these  peo- 
ple. 

Each  one  seemed  to  vie  with  the 
others  in  extending  courtesies  and 
showing  kindness  to  us,  but  all 
laughed  heartily,  I  remember,  when 
they  had  to  improvise  chairs  for  my 
father  and  myself  to  sit  at  table. 
They  were  richly  attired  in  a  costume 
peculiar  to  themselves,  and  very  at- 
tractive. The  men  were  clothed  in 
handsomely  embroidered  tunics  of 
silli  and  satin  and  belted  at  the  waist. 
They  wore  knee-breeches  and  stock- 
ings of  a  fine  texture,  while  their  feet 
were  encased  in  sandals  adorned  with 
gold  buckles.  We  early  discovered 
107 


THE  SMOKY  GOD 

that  gold  was  one  of  the  most  coiimion 
metals  known,  and  that  it  was  used 
extensively  in  decoration. 

Strange  as  it  msiy  seem,  neither  my 
father  nor  myself  felt  the  least  bit 
of  solicitude  for  our  safety.  ^'We 
have  come  into  our  own,"  my  father 
said  to  me.  ''This  is  the  fulfillment 
of  the  tradition  told  me  by  my  father 
and  my  father 's  father,  and  still  back 
for  many  generations  of  our  race. 
This  is,  assuredly,  the  land  beyond  the 
North  Wind." 

We  seemed  to  make  such  an  im- 
pression on  the  party  that  we  were 
given  specially  into  the  charge  of  one 
of  the  men,  Jules  Galdea,  and  his 
wife,  for  the  purpose  of  being  edu- 
cated in  their  language;  and  we,  on 
108 


THE  SMOKY  GOD 

our  part,  were  just  as  eager  to  learn 
as  they  were  to  instruct. 

At  the  captain's  command,  the  ves- 
sel was  swung  cleverly  about,  and  be- 
gan retracing  its  course  up  the  river. 
The  machinery^  while  noiseless,  was 
very  powerful. 

The  banks  and  trees  on  either  side 
seemed  to  rush  by.  The  ship 's  speed, 
at  times,  surpassed  that  of  any  rail- 
road train  on  which  I  have  ever  rid- 
den, even  here  in  America.  It  was 
wonderful. 

In  the  meantime  we  had  lost  sight 
of  the  sun's  ra^^s,  but  we  found  a  ra- 
diance "within"  emanating  from  the 
duU-red  sun  which  had  already  at- 
tracted our  attention,  now  giving  out 
a  white  light  seemingly  from  a  cloud- 
109 


THE  SMOKY  GOD 

bank  far  away  in  front  of  us.  It  dis- 
pensed a  greater  light,  I  should  say, 
than  two  full  moons  on  the  clearest 
night. 

In  twelve  hours  this  cloud  of  white- 
ness would  pass  out  of  sight  as  if 
eclipsed,  and  the  twelve  hours  fol- 
lowing corresponded  with  our  night. 
We  early  learned  that  these  strange 
people  were  worshipers  of  this  great 
cloud  of  night.  It  was  "The  Smoky 
God ' '  of  the  ' '  Inner  World. ' ' 

The  ship  was  equipped  with  a  mode 
of  illumination  which  I  now  presume 
was  electricity,  but  neither  my  father 
nor  myself  were  sufficiently  skilled 
in  mechanics  to  understand  whence 
came  the  power  to  operate  the  ship, 
or  to  maintain  the  soft  beautiful 
lights  that  answered  the  same  purpose 
110 


THE  SMOKY  GOD 

of  our  present  methods  of  ligliting  the 
streets  of  our  cities,  our  houses  and 
places  of  business. 

It  must  be  remembered,  the  time  of 
which  I  WTite  was  the  autunm  of  1829, 
and  we  of  the  ''outside"  surface  of 
the  earth  knew  nothing  then,  so  to 
speak,  of  electricity. 

The  electrically  surcharged  condi- 
tion of  the  air  was  a  constant  vital- 
izer.  I  never  felt  better  in  my  life 
than  during  the  two  years  my  father 
and  I  sojourned  on  the  inside  of  the 
earth. 

To  resume  my  narrative  of  events : 
The  ship  on  which  we  were  sailing 
came  to  a  stop  two  days  after  we  had 
been  taken  on  board.  My  father  said 
as  nearly  as  he  could  judge,  we  were 
directly  under  Stockholm  or  London. 
Ill 


THE  SMOKY  GOD 

The  city  we  had  reached  was  called 
"Jehu/'  signifj^ing  a  seaport  to\^^i. 
The  houses  were  large  and  beautifully 
constructed,  and  quite  uniform  in  ap- 
pearance, yet  without  sameness.  The 
principal  occupation  of  the  people  ap- 
peared to  be  agriculture;  the  hillsides 
were  covered  with  vineyards,  while 
the  valleys  were  devoted  to  the  grow- 
ing of  grain. 

I  never  saw  such  a  display  of  gold. 
It  was  everywhere.  The  door-cas- 
ings were  inlaid  and  the  tables  were 
veneered  with  sheetings  of  gold. 
Domes  of  the  public  buildings  were 
of  gold.  It  was  used  most  generously 
in  the  finishings  of  the  great  temples 
of  music. 

Vegetation  grew  in  lavish  exuber- 
ance, and  fruit  of  all  kinds  possessed 
112 


THE  SMOKY  GOD 

the  most  delicate  flavor.  Clusters  of 
grapes  four  and  five  feet  in  leng-th, 
each  grape  as  large  as  an  orange,  and 
apples  larger  than  a  man's  head  typi- 
fied the  wonderful  growth  of  all 
things  on  the  ''inside"  of  the  earth. 

The  great  redwood  trees  of  Califor- 
nia would  be  considered  mere  under- 
brush compared  with  the  giant  forest 
trees  extending  for  miles  and  miles  in 
all   directions.    In  many  directions 
along  the  foothills  of  the  mountains 
vast  herds  of  cattle  were  seen  during 
the  last  day  of  our  travel  on  the  river. 
We  heard  much  of  a  city  called 
''Eden,"  but  were  kept  at  "Jehu"  for 
an  entire  year.     By  the  end  of  that 
time  we  had  learned  to  speak  fairly 
well  the  language  of  this  strange  race 
of    people.     Our    instructors,    Jules 
113 


THE  SMOKY  GOD 

Galdea  and  his  wife,  exhibited  a  pa- 
tience that  was  truly  commendable. 

One  day  an  envoy  from  the  Ruler 
at  ''Eden"  came  to  see  us,  and  for 
two  whole  days  my  father  and  myself 
were  put  through  a  series  of  surpris- 
ing questions.  They  wished  to  know 
from  whence  we  came,  what  sort  of 
people  dwelt  "without,"  what  God  we 
worshiped,  our  religious  beliefs,  the 
mode  of  living  in  our  strange  land, 
and  a  thousand  other  things. 

The  compass  which  we  had  brought 
with  us  attracted  especial  attention. 
My  father  and  I  conmiented  between 
ourselves  on  the  fact  that  the  com- 
pass still  pointed  north,  although  we 
now  knew  that  we  had  sailed  over  the 
curve  or  edge  of  the  earth 's  aj^erture, 
and  were  far  along  southward  on  the 
114 


THE  SMOKY  GOD 

*' inside"  surface  of  the  earth's  crust, 
which,  according  to  my  father's  es- 
timate and  my  own,  is  about  three 
hundred  miles  in  thickness  from  the 
"inside"  to  the  *^ outside"  surface. 
Relatively  speaking,  it  is  no  thicker 
than  an  egg-shell,  so  that  there  is  al- 
most as  much  surface  on  the  *' inside" 
as  on  the  * '  outside ' '  of  the  earth. 

The  great  luminous  cloud  or  ball  of 
dull-red  fire — fiery-red  in  the  morn- 
ings and  evenings,  and  during  the  day 
giving  off  a  beautiful  white  light, 
**The  Smoky  God," — is  seemingly 
susi^ended  in  the  center  of  the  great 
vacuimi  'Svithin"  the  earth,  and  held 
to  its  place  by  the  immutable  law  of 
gravitation,  or  a  repellant  atmosphe- 
ric force,  as  the  case  may  be.  I  refer 
to  the  known  power  that  draws  or  re- 
115 


THE  SMOKY  GOB 

pels  with  equal  force  in  all  directions. 
The  base  of  this  electrical  cloud  or 
central  luminary,  the  seat  of  the  gods, 
is  dark  and  non-transjDarent,  save  for 
innumerable  small  openings,  seeming- 
ly in  the  bottom  of  the  great  support 
or  altar  of  the  Deity,  upon  which 
**The  Smoky  God"  rests;  and,  the 
lights  shining  through  these  many 
openings  twinkle  at  night  in  all  their 
splendor,  and  seem  to  be  stars,  as  nat- 
ural as  the  stars  we  saw  shining  when 
in  our  home  at  Stockholm,  excepting 
that  they  appear  larger.  *'The 
Smoky  God,"  therefore,  with  each 
daily  revolution  of  the  earth,  appears 
to  come  up  in  the  east  and  go  down 
in  the  west,  the  same  as  does  our  sun 
on  the  external  surface.  In  reality, 
the  people  ''within"  believe  that 
116 


THE  SMOKY  GOD 

''The  Smoky  Grod"  is  the  throne  of 
their  Jehovah,  and  is  stationary. 
The  effect  of  night  and  day  is,  there- 
fore, i3roduced  by  the  earth's  daily 
rotation. 

I  have  since  discovered  that  the 
language  of  the  people  of  the  Inner 
"World  is  much  like  the  Sanskrit. 

After  we  had  given  an  account  of 
ourselves  to  the  emissaries  from  the 
central  seat  of  government  of  the  in- 
ner continent,  and  my  father  had,  in 
his  crude  way,  drawn  maps,  at  their 
request,  of  the  "outside"  surface  of 
the  earth,  showing  the  divisions  of 
land  and  water,  and  giving  the  name 
of  each  of  the  continents,  large  is- 
lands and  the  oceans,  we  were  taken 
overland  to  the  city  of  "Eden,"  in  a 
conveyance  different  from  anything 
117 


THE  SMOKY  GOD 

we  have  in  Europe  or  America. 
This  vehicle  was  doubtless  some  elec- 
trical contrivance.  It  was  noiseless, 
and  ran  on  a  single  iron  rail  in  per- 
fect balance.  The  trip  was  made  at 
a  very  high  rate  of  si)eed.  We  were 
carried  up  hills  and  down  dales, 
across  valleys  and  again  along  the 
sides  of  steep  mountains,  without  any 
apparent  attempt  having  been  made 
to  level  the  earth  as  we  do  for  rail- 
road tracks.  The  car  seats  were 
huge  yet  comfortable  affairs,  and 
very  high  above  the  floor  of  the  car. 
On  the  top  of  each  car  were  high 
geared  fly  wheels  lying  on  their  sides, 
which  were  so  automatically  ad- 
justed that,  as  the  speed  of  the  car 
increased,  the  high  speed  of  these 
fly  wheels  geometricall}^  increased. 
118 


THE  SMOKY  GOD 

Jules  Galdea  explained  to  us  that 
these  revolving  fan-like  wheels  on 
top  of  the  cars  destroyed  atmospheric 
pressure,  or  what  is  generally  under- 
stood by  the  term  gravitation,  and 
with  this  force  thus  destroyed  or  ren- 
dered nugatory  the  car  is  as  safe  from 
falling  to  one  side  or  the  other  from 
the  single  rail  track  as  if  it  were  in  a 
vacuum ;  the  fly  wheels  in  their  rapid 
revolutions  destroying  effectually  the 
so-called  power  of  gravitation,  or  the 
force  of  atmospheric  pressure  or 
whatever  potent  influence  it  may  be 
that  causes  all  unsupported  things  to 
fall  downward  to  the  earth's  surface 
or  to  the  nearest  2)oint  of  resistance. 
The  surprise  of  my  father  and  my- 
self was  indescribable  when,  amid  the 
regal  magnificence  of  a  spacious  hall, 
119 


THE  SMOKY  GOD 

we  were  finally  brought  before  the 
Great  High  Priest,  ruler  over  all  the 
laud.  He  was  richly  robed,  and 
much  taller  than  those  about  him,  and 
could  not  have  been  less  than  four- 
teen or  fifteen  feet  in  height.  The 
immense  room  in  which  we  were  re- 
ceived seemed  finished  in  solid  slabs 
of  gold  thickly  studded  with  jewels  of 
amazing  brilliancy. 

The  city  of  "Eden"  is  located  in 
what  seems  to  be  a  beautiful  valley, 
yet,  in  fact,  it  is  on  the  loftiest 
mountain  plateau  of  the  Inner  Con- 
tinent, several  thousand  feet  higher 
than  any  portion  of  the  surrounding 
country.  It  is  the  most  beautiful 
place  I  have  ever  beheld  in  all  my 
travels.  In  this  elevated  garden  all 
manner  of  fruits,  vines,  shrubs,  trees, 
120 


"We   were    brought   before    the    Great   High    Priest. 


THE  SMOKY  GOD 

and  flowers  grow  in  riotous  profusion. 

In  this  garden  four  rivers  have 
their  source  in  a  mighty  artesian 
fountain.  The}^  divide  and  flow  in 
four  directions.  This  place  is  called 
by  the  inhabitants  the  ''navel  of  the 
earth,"  or  the  beginning,  "the  cradle 
of  the  human  race."  The  names  of 
the  rivers  are  the  Euphrates,  the  Pi- 
son,  the  Gihon,  and  the  Hiddekel.^ 

The  unexpected  awaited  us  in  this 
palace  of  beauty,  in  the  finding  of  our 
little  fishing-craft.  It  had  been 
brought  before  the  High  Priest  in 
perfect  shape,  just  as  it  had  been 


1  <i 


'And  the  Lord  God  planted  a  gar- 
den, and  out  of  the  ground  made  the 
Lord  God  to  grow  every  tree  that  is 
pleasant  to  the  sight  and  good  for 
food."— The  Book  of  Genesis. 
123 


THE  SMOKY  GOD 

taken  from  the  waters  that  da}^  when 
it  was  loaded  on  board  the  ship  by 
the  people  who  discovered  us  on  the 
river  more  than  a  year  before. 

We  were  given  an  audience  of  over 
two  hours  with  this  great  dignitary, 
who  seemed  kindly  disposed  and  con- 
siderate. He  showed  himself  eager- 
ly interested,  asking  us  numerous 
questions,  and  invariably  regarding 
things  about  which  his  emissaries  had 
failed  to  inquire. 

At  the  conclusion  of  the  interview 
he  inquired  our  pleasure,  asking  us 
whether  we  wished  to  remain  in  his 
country  or  if  we  preferred  to  return 
to  the  ''outer"  world,  providing  it 
were  possible  to  make  a  successful  re- 
turn trip,  across  the  frozen  belt  bar- 
riers that  encircle  both  the  northern 
124 


THE  SMOKY  GOD 

and  southern  openings  of  the  earth. 

My  father  replied:  ''It  would 
please  me  and  my  son  to  visit  j^our 
country  and  see  your  people,  your 
colleges  and  palaces  of  music  and  art, 
your  great  fields,  your  wonderful 
forests  of  timber;  and  after  we  have 
had  this  pleasurable  privilege,  we 
should  like  to  try  to  return  to  our 
home  on  the  'outside'  surface  of  the 
earth.  This  son  is  my  only  child, 
and  my  good  wife  will  be  weary 
awaiting  our  return." 

"I  fear  you  can  never  return,"  re- 
plied the  Chief  High  Priest,  "because 
the  way  is  a  most  hazardous  one. 
However,  you  shall  visit  the  different 
countries  with  Jules  Galdea  as  your 
escort,  and  be  accorded  every  cour- 
tesy and  kindness.  Whenever  you 
125 


THE  SMOKY  GOD 

are  ready  to  attempt  a  return  voyage, 
I  assure  you  that  your  boat  which  is 
here  on  exhibition  shall  be  put  in  the 
waters  of  the  river  Heddekel  at  its 
mouth,  and  we  will  bid  you  Jehovah- 
speed." 

Thus  terminated  our  only  inter- 
view with  the  High  Priest  or  Ruler 
of  the  continent. 


126 


PART  FOUR 
IN  THE  UNDER  WORLD 

WE  learned  that  the  males  do  not 
marry  before  they  are  from 
seventy-five  to  one  hundred  years  old, 
and  that  the  age  at  which  women  enter 
wedlock  is  only  a  little  less,  and  that 
both  men  and  women  frequently  live 
to  be  from  six  to  eight  hundred  years 
old,  and  in  some  instances  much 
older/ 

"^  Joseplius  says:  ^'God  prolonged 
the  life  of  the  patriarchs  that  pre- 
ceded the  deluge,  both  on  account  of 
their  virtues  and  to  give  them  the  op- 
portunity of  perfecting  the  sciences 
127 


THE  SMOKY  GOD 

During  the  following  year  we  vis- 
ited many  villages  and  towns,  prom- 
inent among  them  being  the  cities  of 
Nigi,  Delfi,  Hectea,  and  my  father 
was  called  upon  no  less  than  a  half- 
dozen  times  to  go  over  the  maps  which 
had  been  made  from  the  rough 
sketches  he  had  originally  given  of  the 
divisions  of  land  and  water  on  the 
''outside"  surface  of  the  earth. 

I  remember  hearing  my  father  re- 
mark that  the  giant  race  of  people 
in  the  land  of  "The  Smoky  God"  had 

of  geometry  and  astronomy,  which 
they  had  discovered;  which  they 
could  not  have  done  if  they  had  not 
lived  600  years,  because  it  is  only 
after  the  lapse  of  600  years  that  the 
great  year  is  accomplished/' — Flam- 
marion,  Astronomical  Myths,  Paris 
p.  26. 

128 


THE  SMOKY  GOD 

almost  as  accurate  an  idea   of  the^ 
geograpliy  of  the  "outside"  surface 
of  the  earth  as  had  the  average  col- 
lege professor  in  Stockholm. 

In  our  travels  we  came  to  a  forest 
of  gigantic  trees,  near  the  city  of 
Delfi.  Had  the  Bible  said  there  were 
trees  towering  over  three  hundred 
feet  in  height,  and  more  than  thirty 
feet  in  diameter,  growing  in  the  Gar- 
den of  Eden,  the  Ingersolls,  the  Tom 
Paines  and  Voltaires  would  doubtless 
have  pronounced  the  statement  a 
myth.  Yet  this  is  the  description  of 
the  California  sequoia  glgantea;  but 
these  California  giants  pale  into  in- 
significance when  compared  with  the 
forest  Goliaths  found  in  the  'S\ithin" 
continent,  where  abound  mighty  trees 
from  eight  hundred  to  one  thousand 
129 


-       THE  SMOKY  GOD 

feet  in  height,  and  from  one  hundred 
to  one  hundred  and  twenty  feet  in 
diameter;  comitless  in  numbers  and 
forming  forests  extending  hundreds 
of  miles  back  from  the  sea. 

The  people  are  exceedingly  musical, 
and  learned  to  a  remarkable  degree 
in  their  arts  and  sciences,  especially 
geometry  and  astronomy.  Their 
cities  are  equipped  with  vast  palaces 
of  music,  where  not  infrequently  as 
many  as  twenty-five  thousand  lusty 
voices  of  this  giant  race  swell  forth 
in  mighty  choruses  of  the  most  sub- 
lime symphonies. 

The  children  are  not  sujoposed  to 
attend  institutions  of  learning  before 
they  are  twenty  years  old.  Then 
their  school  life  begins  and  continues 
for  thirty  years,  ten  of  which  are 
130 


THE  SMOKY  GOD 

imiformly  devoted  by  both  sexes  to 
the  study  of  music. 

Tlieir  principal  vocations  are  ar- 
chitecture, agriculture,  horticulture, 
the  raising  of  vast  herds  of  cattle,  and 
the  building  of  conveyances  peculiar 
to  that  country,  for  travel  on  land 
and  water.  By  some  device  which  I 
cannot  explain,  they  hold  communion 
with  one  another  between  the  most 
distant  parts  of  their  country,  on  air 
currents. 

All  buildings  are  erected  with  spe- 
cial regard  to  strength,  durability, 
beauty  and  symmetry,  and  with  a 
style  of  architecture  vastly  more  at- 
tractive to  the  eye  than  any  I  have 
ever  observed  elsewhere. 

About  three-fourths  of  the  "inner" 
surface  of  the  earth  is  land  and 
131 


THE  SMOKY  GOD 

about  one-fourth  water.  There  are 
numerous  rivers  of  tremendous  size, 
some  flowing  in  a  northerly  direction 
and  others  southerly.  Some  of  these 
rivers  are  thirty  miles  in  width,  and 
it  is  out  of  these  vast  waterways,  at 
the  extreme  northern  and  southern 
parts  of  the  '^ inside"  surface  of  the 
earth,  in  regions  where  low  temper- 
atures are  experienced,  that  fresh- 
water icebergs  are  formed.  They  are 
then  pushed  out  to  sea  like  huge 
tongues  of  ice,  by  the  abnormal 
freshets  of  turbulent  waters  that, 
twice  every  year,  sweep  everj^thing 
before  them. 

We  saw  innumerable  specimens  of 
bird-life  no  larger  than  those  encoun- 
tered in  the  forests   of  Euroi^e   or 
America.    It  is  well  known  that  dur- 
132 


THE  SMOKY  GOD 

ing  the  last  few  years  wliole  species 
of  birds  have  quit  the  earth.  A 
writer  in  a  recent  article  on  this  sub- 
ject says :' 

Is  it  not  possible  that  these  disap- 
pearing bird  species  quit  their  habita- 
tion without,  and  find  an  asylum  in 
the  ^'within  world'"? 

Whether  inland  among  the  moun- 
tains, or  along  the  seashore,  we  found 
bird  life  prolific.  When  they  spread 
their  great  wings  some  of  the  birds 
appeared  to  measure  thirty  feet  from 

^  *^ Almost  every  year  sees  the  final 
extinction  of  one  or  more  hird  species. 
Out  of  fourteen  varieties  of  birds 
found  a  century  since  on  a  single  is- 
land— the  West  Indian  island  of  St. 
Thomas — eight  have  now  to  he  num- 
hei'ed  among  the  missing.'^ 

133 


THE  SMOKY  GOD 

tip  to  tip.  They  are  of  great  variety 
and  many  colors.  We  were  permit- 
ted to  climb  up  on  the  edge  of  a  rock 
and  examine  a  nest  of  eggs.  There 
were  five  in  the  nest,  each  of  which 
was  at  least  two  feet  in  length  and 
fifteen  inches  in  diameter. 

After  we  had  been  in  the  city  of 
Hectea  about  a  week,  Professor  Gal- 
dea  took  us  to  an  inlet,  where  we  saw 
thousands  of  tortoises  along  the  sandy 
shore.  I  hesitate  to  state  the  size  of 
these  great  creatures.  They  were 
from  twenty-five  to  thirty  feet  in 
length,  from  fifteen  to  twenty  feet  in 
width  and  fully  seven  feet  in  height. 
When  one  of  them  projected  its  head 
it  had  the  appearance  of  some  hideous 
sea  monster. 

The  strange  conditions  "within" 
134 


•There  must  have  been  five  hundred  of  these  thunder-throated 
monsters." 


THE  SMOKY  GOD 

are  favorable  not  only  for  vast  mead- 
ows of  luxuriant  grasses,  forests  of 
giant  trees,  and  all  manner  of  vegeta- 
ble life,  but  wonderful  animal  life  as 
well. 

One  day  we  saw  a  great  herd  of 
elephants.  There  must  have  been 
five  hundred  of  these  thunder- 
throated  monsters,  with  their  rest- 
lessly waving  trunks.  They  were 
tearing  huge  boughs  from  the  trees 
and  trampling  smaller  growth  into 
dust  like  so  much  hazel-brush.  They 
would  average  over  100  feet  in  length 
and  from  75  to  85  in  height. 

It  seemed,  as  I  gazed  upon  this 
wonderful  herd  of  giant  elephants, 
that  I  was  again  living  in  the  public 
library  at  Stockholm,  where  I  had 
spent  much  time  studying  the  won- 
137 


THE  SMOKY  GOD 

ders  of  the  Miocene  age.  I  was  filled 
with  mute  astonishment,  and  my 
father  was  speechless  with  awe.  He 
held  my  arm  with  a  protecting  grip, 
as  if  fearful  harm  would  overtake  us. 
We  were  two  atoms  in  this  great  for- 
est, and,  fortunately,  unobserved  by 
this  vast  herd  of  elephants  as  they 
drifted  on  and  away,  following  a 
leader  as  does  a  herd  of  sheep.  They 
browsed  from  growing  herbage  which 
they  encountered  as  they  traveled, 
and  now  and  again  shook  the  firma- 
ment with  their  deep  bellowing.^ 

^^^Moreover,  there  were  a  great 
niimher  of  elepliants  in  the  island: 
and  there  was  provision  for  animals 
of  every  kind.  Also  tvhatever  fra- 
grant things  there  are  in  the  earth, 
whether  roots  or  herhage,  or  tvoods, 
138 


THE  SMOKY  GOD 

There  is  a  hazy  mist  that  goes  up 
from  the  land  each  evening,  and  it 
invariably  rains  once  every  twenty- 
four  hours.  This  great  moisture  and 
the  invigorating  electrical  light  and 
warmth  account  perhaps  for  the  lux- 
uriant vegetation,  while  the  highly 
charged  electrical  air  and  the  even- 
ness of  climatic  conditions  may  have 
much  to  do  with  the  giant  growth  and 
longevity  of  all  animal  life. 

In  places  the  level  valleys  stretched 
away  for  many  miles  in  every  direc- 
tion. ' '  The  Smoky  God, ' '  in  its  clear 
white  light,  looked  calmly  down. 
There  was  an  intoxication  in  the  elec- 
trically surcharged  air  that  fanned 


>} 


or  distilling  drops  of  flowers  or  fruits, 
grew  and  thrived  in  that  land.' 
The  Cratjjluo  of  Plato. 
139 


THE  SMOKY  GOD 

the  cheek  as  softly  as  a  vanishing 
whisper.  Nature  chanted  a  lullaby  in 
the  faint  murmur  of  winds  whose 
breath  was  sweet  with  the  fragrance 
of  bud  and  blossom. 

After  having  spent  considerably 
more  than  a  year  in  visiting  several 
of  the  many  cities  of  the  "within" 
world  and  a  great  deal  of  intervening 
country,  and  more  than  two  years  had 
passed  from  the  time  we  had  been 
picked  up  by  the  great  excursion  ship 
on  the  river,  we  decided  to  cast  our 
fortunes  once  more  upon  the  sea,  and 
endeavor  to  regain  the  ''outside"  sur- 
face of  the  earth. 

We  made  known  our  wishes,  and 

they  were  reluctantly  but  promptly 

followed.     Our  hosts  gave  my  father, 

at  his  request,  various  maps  showing 

140 


THE  SMOKY  GOD 

the  entire  "inside"  surface  of  the 
earth,  its  cities,  oceans,  seas,  rivers, 
gnlf  s  and  bays.  They  also  generously 
offered  to  give  us  all  the  bags  of  gold 
nuggets — some  of  them  as  large  as  a 
goose's  egg — that  we  were  willing  to 
attempt  to  take  with  us  in  our  little 
fishing-boat. 

In  due  time  we  returned  to  Jehu, 
at  which  place  we  spent  one  month 
in  fixing  up  and  overhauling  our  lit- 
tle fishing  sloop.  After  all  was  in 
readiness,  the  same  ship  "Naz"  that 
originally  discovered  us,  took  us  on 
board  and  sailed  to  the  mouth  of  the 
river  Hiddekel. 

After  our  giant  brothers  had 
lavmched  our  little  craft  for  us,  they 
were  most  cordially  regretful  at  part- 
ing, and  evinced  much  solicitude  for 
141 


THE  SMOKY  GOD 

our  safety.  My  father  swore  by  the 
Gods  Odin  and  Thor  that  he  would 
surely  return  again  within  a  year  or 
two  and  pay  them  another  visit.  And 
thus  we  bade  them  adieu.  We  made 
ready  and  hoisted  our  sail,  but  there 
was  little  breeze.  We  were  becalmed 
within  an  hour  after  our  giant  friends 
had  left  us  and  started  on  their  re- 
turn trip. 

The  winds  were  constantly  blowing 
south,  that  is,  they  were  blowing  from 
the  northern  opening  of  the  earth  to- 
ward that  which  we  knew  to  be  south, 
but  which,  according  to  our  compass's 
pointing  finger,  was  directly  north. 

For  three  days  we  tried  to  sail,  and 

to  beat  against  the  wind,  but  to  no 

avail.    Whereupon  my  father  said: 

*'My  son,  to  return  by  the  same  route 

142 


THE  SMOKY  GOD 

as  we  came  in  is  impossible  at  this 
time  of  year.  I  wonder  why  we  did 
not  think  of  this  before.  We  have 
been  liere  almost  two  and  a  half 
years;  therefore,  this  is  the  season 
when  the  sun  is  beginning  to  shine  in 
at  the  southern  opening  of  the  earth. 
The  long  cold  night  is  on  in  the  Spitz- 
bergen  country. ' ' 

''What  shall  we  do?"  I  inquired. 

"There  is  only  one  thing  we  can 
do,"  my  father  replied,  "and  that  is 
to  go  south. ' '  Accordingly,  he  turned 
the  craft  about,  gave  it  full  reef,  and 
started  by  the  compass  north  but,  in 
fact,  directly  south.  The  wind  was 
strong,  and  w^e  seemed  to  have  struck 
a  current  that  was  running  with  re- 
markable swiftness  in  the  same  direc- 
tion. 

143 


THE  SMOKY  GOD 

In  just  forty  daj^s  we  arrived  at 
Delfi,  a  city  we  had  visited  in  com- 
pany with  our  guides  Jules  Galdea 
and  his  wife,  near  the  mouth  of  the 
Gihon  river.  Here  we  stopped  for 
two  days,  and  were  most  hospitably 
entertained  by  the  same  people  who 
had  welcomed  us  on  our  former  visit. 
We  laid  in  some  additional  provis- 
ions and  again  set  sail,  following  the 
needle  due  north. 

On  our  outward  trip  we  came 
through  a  narrow  channel  which  ap- 
peared to  be  a  separating  body  of 
w^ater  between  two  considerable 
bodies  of  land.  There  was  a  beauti- 
ful beach  to  our  right,  and  we  decided 
to  reconnoiter.  Casting  anchor,  we 
waded  ashore  to  rest  up  for  a  day  be- 
fore contmuing  the  outward  hazard- 
144 


THE  SMOKY  GOD 

oiis  undertaking.  We  built  a  fire  and 
threw  on  some  sticks  of  dry  drift- 
wood. While  my  father  was  walking 
along  the  shore,  I  prepared  a  tempt- 
ing repast  from  supplies  we  had  pro- 
vided. 

There  was  a  mild,  luminous  light 
which  my  father  said  resulted  from 
the  sun  shining  in  from  the  south 
aperture  of  the  earth.  That  night  we 
slept  soundly,  and  awakened  the  next 
morning  as  refreshed  as  if  we  had 
been  in  our  own  beds  at  Stockholm. 

After  breakfast  we  started  out  on 
an  inland  tour  of  discovery,  but  had 
not  gone  far  when  we  sighted  some 
birds  which  we  recognized  at  once  as 
belonging  to  the  jDenguin  family. 
They  are  flightless  birds,  but  excellent 
swimmers  and  tremendous  in  size, 
145 


THE  SMOKY  GOD 

with  white  breast,  short  wings,  black 
head,  and  long  peaked  bills.  They 
stand  fully  nine  feet  high.  They 
looked  at  us  with  little  surprise,  and 
presently  w^addled,  rather  than 
walked,  toward  the  water,  and  sw^am 
away  in  a  northerly  direction.^ 

The  events  that  occurred  during  the 
following  hundred  or  more  days  beg- 
gar description.  We  were  on  an 
open  and  iceless  sea.  The  month  we 
reckoned  to  be  November  or  Decem- 
ber, and  we  knew  the  so-called  South 

^  ^'The  nights  are  never  so  dark  at 
the  Poles  as  in  other  regions,  for  the 
moon  and  stars  seem  to  possess  twice 
as  much  light  and  effidgence.  In  ad- 
dition, there  is  a  continuous  light,  the 
varied  shades  and  play  of  which  are 
amongst  the  strangest  phenomena  of 
nature/' — Ramhrosson's  Astronomy. 
146 


THE  SMOKY  GOD 

Pole  Tvas  turned  toward  the  sun. 
Therefore,  when  passing  out  and 
away  from  the  internal  electrical  light 
of  ''The  Smoky  God"  and  its  genial 
warmth,  we  would  be  met  by  the  liglit 
and  warmth  of  the  sun,  shining  in 
through  the  south  opening  of  the 
earth.    We  were  not  mistaken.^ 

There  were  times  when  our  little 
craft,  driven  by  wind  that  was  con- 
tiouous  and  persistent,  shot  through 
the  waters  like  an  arrow.     Indeed, 

^  '^The  fact  that  gives  the  phenome- 
non of  the  polar  aurora  its  greatest 
importance  is  that  the  earth  'becomes 
self-luminous;  that,  besides  the  light 
which  as  a  planet  is  received  from  the 
central  body,  it  shotcs  a  capahilitij  of 
sustaining  a  luminous  process  proper 
to  itself." — Humboldt. 

147 


THE  SMOKY  GOD 

had  we  encountered  a  hidden  rock  or 
obstacle,  our  little  vessel  would  have 
been  crushed  into  kindling-wood. 

At  last  we  were  conscious  that  the 
atmosphere  was  growing  decidedly 
colder,  and,  a  few  days  later,  icebergs 
were  sighted  far  to  the  left.  My 
father  argued,  and  correctly,  that  the 
winds  which  filled  our  sails  came  from 
the  warm  climate  "within."  The 
time  of  the  year  was  certainly  most 
auspicious  for  us  to  make  our  dash 
for  the  "outside"  world  and  attempt 
to  scud  our  fishmg  sloop  through  open 
channels  of  the  frozen  zone  which  sur- 
rounds the  polar  regions. 

We  were  soon  amid  the  ice-packs, 
and  how  our  little  craft  got  through 
the  narrow  channels  and  escaped  be- 
ing crushed  I  know  not.  The  com- 
148 


THE  SMOKY  GOD 

pass  behaved  in  the  same  drunken 
and  unreliable  fashion  in  passing  over 
the  southern  curve  or  edge  of  the 
earth's  shell  as  it  had  done  on  our  in- 
bound trip  at  the  northern  entrance. 
It  gyrated,  dipped  and  seemed  like  a 
thing  possessed.^ 

^  Captain  Satine,  on  page  105  in 
'' Voyages  in  the  Arctic  Regions," 
says:  ''The  geographical  determina- 
tion of  the  direction  and  intensity  of 
the  magnetic  forces  at  different  points 
of  the  earth^s  surface  has  heen  re- 
garded as  an  object  worthy  of  espe- 
cial research.  To  examine  in  differ- 
ent parts  of  the  glohe,  the  declination, 
inclination  and  intensity  of  the  mag- 
netic force,  and  their  periodical  and 
secular  variations,  and  mutual  rela- 
tions and  dependencies  cotdd  he  duly 
investigated  only  in  fixed  magnetical 
observatories/' 

149 


THE  SMOKY  GOD 

One  day  as  I  was  lazily  looking 
over  the  sloop 's  side  into  the  clear  wa- 
ters, my  father  shouted:  ''Breakers 
ahead!"  Looking  up,  I  saw  through 
a  lifting  mist  a  w^hite  object  that  tow- 
ered several  hundred  feet  high,  com- 
pletely shutting  off  our  advance. 
We  lowered  sail  immediately,  and 
none  too  soon.  In  a  moment  we  found 
ourselves  w^edged  between  two  mon- 
strous icebergs.  Each  was  crow^ding 
and  grinding  against  its  fellow  moun- 
tain of  ice.  They  were  like  two  gods 
of  war  contending  for  supremacy. 
We  were  greatly  alarmed.  Indeed, 
we  were  between  the  lines  of  a  battle 
royal;  the  sonorous  thunder  of  the 
grinding  ice  was  like  the  continued 
volleys  of  artillery.  Blocks  of  ice 
larger  than  a  house  were  frequently 
150 


"My    father   shouted:     'Breakers   ahead!' 


THE  SMOKY  GOD 

lifted  up  a  hundred  feet  by  the  mighty 
force  of  lateral  pressure ;  they  would 
shudder  and  rock  to  and  fro  for  a  few 
seconds,  then  come  crashing  down 
with  a  deafening  roar,  and  disappear 
in  the  foaming  waters.  Thus,  for 
more  than  two  hours,  the  contest  of 
the  icy  giants  continued. 

It  seemed  as  if  the  end  had  come. 
The  ice  pressure  was  terrific,  and 
while  we  were  not  caught  in  the  dan- 
gerous part  of  the  jam,  and  were 
safe  for  the  time  being,  yet  the  heav- 
ing and  rending  of  tons  of  ice  as  it  fell 
splashing  here  and  there  into  the  wa- 
tery depths  filled  us  with  shaking 
fear. 

Finally,  to  our  great  joy,  the  grind- 
ing of  the  ice  ceased,  and  within  a  few 
hours  the  great  mass  slowly  divided, 
153 


THE  SMOKY  GOD 

and,  as  if  an  act  of  Providence  had 
been  j^ei'formed,  right  before  us  lay 
an  open  channel.  Should  we  venture 
with  our  little  craft  into  this  opening  ? 
If  the  pressure  came  on  again,  our  lit- 
tle sloop  as  well  as  ourselves  would  be 
crushed  into  nothingness.  We  de- 
cided to  take  the  chance,  and,  accord- 
ingly, hoisted  our  sail  to  a  favoring 
breeze,  and  soon  started  out  like  a 
race-horse,  running  the  gaimtlet  of 
this  unknown  narrow  channel  of  open 
water. 


154 


PART  FIVE 
AMONG  THE  ICE  PACKS 

FOR  the  next  forty-five  days  our 
time  was  employed  in  dodging 
icebergs  and  hunting  channels;  in- 
deed, had  we  not  been  favored  with  a 
strong  south  wind  and  a  small  boat,  I 
doubt  if  this  story  could  have  ever 
been  given  to  the  world. 

At  last,  there  came  a  morning  when 
my  father  said:  ''My  son,  I  think  we 
are  to  see  home.  We  are  almost 
through  the  ice.  See !  the  open  water 
lies  before  us." 

However,  there  were  a  few  icebergs 
155 


THE  SMOKY  GOD 

that  had  floated  far  northward  into 
the  open  water  still  ahead  of  us  on 
either  side,  stretching  away  for  many 
miles.  Directly  in  front  of  us,  and 
by  the  compass,  which  had  now 
righted  itself,  due  north,  there  was  an 
open  sea. 

^'Wliat  a  wonderful  story  we  have 
to  tell  to  the  people  of  Stockholm," 
continued  my  father,  while  a  look  of 
pardonable  elation  lighted  up  his  hon- 
est face.  *'And  think  of  the  gold 
nuggets  stowed  away  in  the  hold ! ' ' 

I  spoke  kind  words  of  praise  to  my 
father,  not  alone  for  his  fortitude  and 
endurance,  but  also  for  his  courage- 
ous daring  as  a  discoverer,  and  for 
having  made  the  voyage  that  now 
promised  a  successful  end.  I  was 
grateful,  too,  that  he  had  gathered 
156 


THE  SMOKY  GOD 

the  wealth  of  gold  we  were  carrying 
home. 

iWhile  congratulating  ourselves  on 
the  goodly  supply  of  provisions  and 
water  we  still  had  on  hand,  and  on 
the  dangers  we  had  escaped,  w^e  were 
startled  by  hearing  a  most  terrific  ex- 
]3losion,  caused  by  the  tearing  apart 
of  a  huge  mountain  of  ice.  It  was 
a  deafening  roar  like  the  firing  of  a 
thousand  cannon.  We  were  sailing 
at  the  time  with  great  speed,  and  hap- 
pened to  be  near  a  monstrous  iceberg 
which,  to  all  appearances  was  as  im- 
movable as  a  rockbound  island.  It 
seemed,  however,  that  the  iceberg  had 
split  and  was  breaking  apart,  where- 
upon the  balance  of  the  monster  along 
which  we  were  sailing  was  destroyed, 
and  it  began  dipping  from  us.  My 
157 


THE  SMOKY  GOD 

father  quickly  anticipated  tlie  danger 
before  I  realized  its  awful  possibili- 
ties. The  iceberg  extended  down  into 
the  water  many  hundreds  of  feet,  and, 
as  it  tipped  over,  the  portion  coming 
up  out  of  the  water  caught  our  fish- 
ing-craft like  a  lever  on  a  fulcrum, 
and  threw  it  into  the  air  as  if  it  had 
been  a  foot-ball. 

Our  boat  fell  back  on  the  iceberg, 
that  by  this  time  had  changed  the  side 
next  to  us  for  the  top.  My  father 
Avas  still  in  the  boat,  having  become 
entangled  in  the  rigging,  while  I  was 
thrown  some  twenty  feet  away. 

I  quickly  scrambled  to  my  feet  and 
shouted  to  my  father,  who  answered : 
**A11  is  well."  Just  then  a  realiza- 
tion dawned  upon  me.  Horror  upon 
horror !  The  blood  froze  in  my  veins. 
158 


THE  SMOKY  GOD 

The  iceberg  was  still  in  motion,  and 
its  great  weight  and  force  in  top^Dling 
over  would  cause  it  to  submerge  tem- 
porarily. I  fully  realized  what  a 
sucking  maelstrom  it  would  produce 
amid  the  worlds  of  water  on  every 
side.  They  would  rush  into  the  de- 
jDression  in  all  their  fury,  like  white- 
fanged  wolves  eager  for  human  prey. 
In  this  supreme  moment  of  mental 
anguish,  I  remember  glancing  at  our 
boat,  which  was  lying  on  its  side,  and 
wondering  if  it  could  possibly  right 
itself,  and  if  my  father  could  escape. 
Was  this  the  end  of  our  struggles  and 
adventures'?  Was  this  death?  All 
these  questions  flashed  through  my 
mind  in  the  fraction  of  a  second,  and 
a  moment  later  I  was  engaged  in  a  life 
and  death  struggle.  The  ponderous 
159 


THE  SMOKY  GOD 

monolith  of  ice  sank  below  the  sur- 
face, and  the  frigid  waters  gurgled 
around  me  in  frenzied  anger.  I  was 
in  a  saucer,  with  the  waters  pouring 
in  on  every  side.  A  moment  more 
and  I  lost  consciousness. 

When  I  partially  recovered  my 
senses,  and  roused  from  the  swoon  of 
a  half-drowned  man,  I  found  myself 
wet,  stiff,  and  almost  frozen,  lying  on 
the  iceberg.  But  there  was  no  sign 
of  my  father  or  of  our  little  fishing 
sloop.  The  monster  berg  had  recov- 
ered itself,  and,  with  its  new  balance, 
lifted  its  head  perhaps  fifty  feet  above 
the  waves.  The  top  of  this  island  of 
ice  was  a  plateau  perhaps  half  an  acre 
in  extent. 

I  loved  my  father  well,  and  was 
grief-stricken  at  the  awfulness  of  his 
160 


THE  SMOKY  GOD 

death.  I  railed  at  fate,  that  I,  too, 
had  not  been  permitted  to  sleep  with 
him  in  the  depths  of  the  ocean.  Fi- 
nally, I  climbed  to  my  feet  and  looked 
about  me.  The  purple-domed  sky 
above,  the  shoreless  green  ocean  be- 
neath, and  onl}^  an  occasional  iceberg 
discernible !  My  heart  sank  in  hope- 
less despair.  I  cautiously  x^icked  my 
way  across  the  berg  toward  the  other 
side,  hoping  that  our  fishing  craft  had 
righted  itself. 

Dared  I  think  it  possible  that  my 
father  still  lived?  It  was  but  a  ray 
of  hope  that  flamed  up  in  my  heart. 
But  the  anticipation  warmed  my 
blood  in  my  veins  and  started  it  rush- 
ing like  some  rare  stimulant  through 
every  fiber  of  my  body. 

I  crept  close  to  the  precipitous  side 
161 


.  THE  SMOKY  GOD 

of  the  iceberg,  and  peered  far  down, 
hoping,  still  hoping.  Then  I  made  a 
circle  of  the  ISerg,  scanning  every  foot 
of  the  way,  and  thus  I  ke^Dt  going 
around  and  around.  One  part  of  my 
brain  was  certainly  becoming  mani- 
acal, while  the  other  part,  I  believe, 
and  do  to  this  day,  was  perfectly  ra- 
tional. 

I  was  conscious  of  having  made  the 
circuit  a  dozen  times,  and  while  one 
part  of  my  intelligence  knew,  in  all 
reason,  there  was  not  a  vestige  of 
hope,  yet  some  strange  fascinating 
aberration  bewitched  and  compelled 
me  still  to  beguile  myself  with  expec- 
tation. The  other  part  of  my  brain 
seemed  to  tell  me  that  while  there  was 
no  possibility  of  my  father  being 
alive,  yet,  if  I  quit  making  the  circuit- 
162 


THE  SMOKY  GOD 

ous  pilgrimage,  if  I  paused  for  a  sin- 
gle niomeiit,  it  would  be  acknowl- 
edgmeut  of  defeat,  and,  sliould  I  do 
tliis,  I  felt  that  I  should  go  mad. 
Thus,  hour  after  hour  I  walked 
around  and  around,  afraid  to  stop  and 
rest,  vet  physically  powerless  to  con- 
tinue much  longer.  Oh!  horror  of 
horrors !  to  be  cast  away  in  this  wide 
expanse  of  waters  without  food  or 
drink,  and  only  a  treacherous  iceberg 
for  an  abiding  place.  M}^  heart  sank 
within  me,  and  all  semblance  of  hope 
was  fading  into  black  despair. 

Then  the  hand  of  the  Deliverer  was 
extended,  and  the  death-like  stillness 
of  a  solitude  rapidly  becoming  un- 
bearable was  suddenly  broken  by  the 
firing  of  a  signal-gmi.  I  looked  up  in 
startled  amazement,  when,  I  saw,  less 
163 


THE  SMOKY  GOD 

than  a  half-mile  away,  a  whaling-ves- 
sel bearing  down  toward  me  with  her 
sail  full  set. 

Evidently  my  continued  activity  on 
the  iceberg  had  attracted  their  atten- 
tion. On  drawing  near,  they  put  out 
a  boat,  and,  descending  cautiously  to 
the  water's  edge,  I  was  rescued,  and 
a  little  later  lifted  on  board  the  whal- 
ing-ship. 

I  found  it  was  a  Scotch  whaler, 
''The  Arlington."  She  had  cleared 
from  Dundee  in  September,  and 
started  immediately  for  the  Antarc- 
tic, in  search  of  whales.  The  captain, 
Angus  MacPherson,  seemed  kindly 
disposed,  but  in  matters  of  discipline, 
as  I  soon  learned,  possessed  of  an  iron 
will.  When  I  attempted  to  tell  him 
that  I  had  come  from  the  ''inside"  of 
164 


"-1 


i.-    Sufis' 


"Less  than  a  half  mile  away  was  a  whaling  vessel: 


THE  SMOKY  GOD 

the  earth,  the  captain  and  mate  looked 
at  each  other,  shook  their  heads,  and 
insisted  on  my  being  put  in  a  ])unk 
under  strict  surveillance  of  the  ship 's 
physician. 

I  was  ver}^  weak  for  want  of  food, 
and  had  not  slej^t  for  many  hours. 
However,  after  a  few  days'  rest,  I  got 
up  one  morning  and  dressed  myself 
without  asking  permission  of  the  phy- 
sician or  anyone  else,  and  told  them 
that  I  was  as  sane  as  anyone. 

The  captain  sent  for  me  and  again 
questioned  me  concerning  where  I 
had  come  from,  and  how  I  came  to  be 
alone  on  an  iceberg  in  the  far  off  Ant- 
arctic Ocean.  I  replied  that  I  had 
just  come  from  the  'inside"  of  the 
earth,  and  proceeded  to  tell  him  how 
my  father  and  myself  had  gone  in  by 
167 


THE  SMOKY  GOD 

wa}^  of  Spitzbergen,  and  come  out  by 
way  of  the  South  Pole  countiy, 
whereupon  I  was  put  in  irons.  I  aft- 
erward heard  the  captain  tell  the  mate 
that  I  was  as  crazy  as  a  March  hare, 
and  that  I  must  remain  in  confine- 
ment until  I  was  rational  enough  to 
give  a  truthful  account  of  myself. 

Finally,  after  much  pleading  and 
many  promises,  I  was  released  from 
irons.  I  then  and  there  decided  to  in- 
vent some  story  that  would  satisfy  the 
captain,  and  never  again  refer  to  my 
trip  to  the  land  of  * '  The  Smoky  God, ' ' 
at  least  until  I  was  safe  among 
friends. 

Within  a  fortnight  I  was  permitted 
to  go  about  and  take  my  place  as  one 
of  the  seamen.  A  little  later  the  cap- 
tain asked  me  for  an  explanation.  I 
168 


"IVhcrcupov.    I   XK.'as  put   in    irons.' 


THE  SMOKY  GOD 

told  him  that  my  experience  had  been 
so  horrible  that  I  was  fearful  of  my 
memory,  and  begged  him  to  permit 
me  to  leave  the  question  unanswered 
until  some  time  in  the  future.  ''I 
think  you  are  recovering  consider- 
ably," he  said,  ''but  you  are  not  sane 
yet  by  a  good  deal."  "Permit  me  to 
do  such  work  as  3^ou  may  assign,"  I 
rej)lied,  ''and  if  it  does  not  compen- 
sate you  sufficiently,  I  will  pay  you 
immediateh^  after  I  reach  Stockholm 
— to  the  last  penny. ' '  Thus  the  mat- 
ter rested. 

On  finally  reaching  Stockholm,  as 
I  have  already  related,  I  found  that 
my  good  mother  had  gone  to  her  re- 
ward more  than  a  year  before.  I 
have  also  told  how,  later,  the  treach- 
ery of  a  relative  landed  me  in  a  mad- 
171 


THE  SMOKY  GOD 

bouse,  where  I  remained  for  twenty- 
eight  years — seemingly  miending 
years — and,  still  later,  after  my  re- 
lease, how  I  retm'ned  to  the  life  of  a 
fisherman,  following  it  sedulously 
for  twenty-seven  years,  then  how  I 
came  to  America,  and  finally  to  Los 
Angeles,  California.  But  all  this  can 
be  of  little  interest  to  the  reader. 
Indeed,  it  seems  to  me  the  climax  of 
my  wonderful  travels  and  strange  ad- 
ventures was  reached  when  the  Scotch 
sailing-vessel  took  me  from  an  ice- 
berg on  the  Antarctic  Ocean. 


172 


PART  SIX 
CONCLUSION 

IN  concluding  this  history  of  my 
adventures,  I  wish  to  state  that  I 
firmly  believe  science  is  yet  in  its  in- 
fancy concerning  the  cosmology  of 
the  earth.  There  is  so  much  that  is 
unaccounted  for  by  the  world's  ac- 
cepted knowledge  of  to-day,  and  will 
ever  remain  so  until  the  land  of  "The 
Smoky  God"  is  known  and  recognized 
by  our  geographers. 

It  is  the  land  from  whence  came 

the  great  logs   of  cedar  that  have 

])een    found   by    explorers    in    open 

waters  far  over  the  northern  edge  of 

173 


THE  SMOKY  GOD 

the  earth's  crust,  and  also  the  bodies 
of  manimoths  whose  bones  are  found 
in  vast  beds  on  the  Siberian  coast. 

Northern  explorers  have  done 
much.  Sir  John  Franklin,  De 
Haven  Grinnell,  Sir  John  Mur- 
ray, Kane,  Melville,  Hall,  Nansen, 
Schwatka,  Greely,  Peary,  Ross,  Ger- 
lache,  Bernacchi,  Andree,  Anisden, 
Amundson  and  others  have  all  been 
striving  to  storm  the  frozen  citadel  of 
mystery. 

I  firmly  believe  that  Andree  and 
his  two  brave  companions,  Strind- 
berg  and  Fraenckell,  who  sailed 
away  in  the  balloon  '^Oreon"  from 
the  northwest  coast  of  Spitzbergen  on 
that  Sunday  afternoon  of  July  11, 
1897,  are  now  in  the  "within"  world, 
and  doubtless  are  being  entertained, 
174 


THE  SMOKY  GOD 

as  my  father  and  myself  were  enter- 
tained by  the  kind-hearted  giant  race 
inhabiting  the  inner  Atlantic  Con- 
tinent. 

Having,  in  my  humble  way,  de- 
voted years  to  these  problems,  I  am 
well  acquainted  with  the  accepted 
definitions  of  gravity,  as  well  as  the 
cause  of  the  magnetic  needle's  at- 
traction, and  I  am  prepared  to  say 
that  it  is  my  firm  belief  that  the  mag- 
netic needle  is  influenced  solely  by 
electric  currents  which  completely 
envelop  the  earth  like  a  garment,  and 
that  these  electric  currents  in  an  end- 
less circuit  pass  out  of  the  southern 
end  of  the  earth's  cylindrical  open- 
ing, diffusing  and  spreading  them- 
selves over  all  the  ''outside"  surface, 
and  rushing  madly  on  in  their  course 
175 


THE  SMOKY  GOD 

toward  the  North  Pole.  And  while 
these  currents  seemingly  dash  off  in- 
to space  at  the  earth's  curve  or  edge, 
yet  they  drop  again  to  the  *' inside" 
surface  and  continue  their  way  south- 
ward along  the  inside  of  the  earth's 
crust,  toward  the  opening  of  the  so- 
called  South  Pole.^ 

As  to  gravity,  no  one  knows  what 
it  is,  because  it  has  not  been  deter- 

*  ^^Mr.  Lemstrom  concluded  that  an 
electric  discharge  which  could  only  he 
seen  by  means  of  the  spectroscope  was 
taking  place  on  the  surface  of  the 
ground  all  around  him,  and  that  from 
a  distance  it  woidd  appear  as  a  faint 
display  of  Aurora,  the  phenomena  of 
pale  and  flaming  light  which  is  some 
times  seen  on  the  top  of  the  Spitzber- 
gen  Mountains." — The  Arctic  Man- 
ual, page  739. 

176 


THE  SMOKY  GOD 

mined  whether  it  is  atmospheric  pres- 
sm'e  that  causes  the  apple  to  fall,  or 
whether,  150  miles  below  the  surface 
of  the  earth,  supposedly  one-half  way 
thi'ough  the  earth 's  crust,  there  exists 
some  powerful  loadstone  attraction 
that  draws  it.  Therefore,  whether 
the  apple,  when  it  leaves  the  limb  of 
the  tree,  is  dra^^Ti  or  impelled  down- 
ward to  the  nearest  point  of  resist- 
ance, is  unknown  to  the  students  of 
phj^sics. 

Sir  James  Ross  claimed  to  have  dis- 
covered the  magnetic  pole  at  about 
seventy-four  degrees  latitude.  This 
is  wrong — the  magnetic  pole  is  ex- 
actly one-half  the  distance  through 
the  earth's  crust.  Thus,  if  the 
earth's  crust  is  three  hundred  miles 
in  thickness,  which  is  the  distance  I 
177 


THE  SMOKY  GOD 

estimate  it  to  be,  then  tlie  magnetic 
pole  is  undoubtedly  one  hundred  and 
fifty  miles  below  the  surface  of  the 
earth,  it  matters  not  where  the  test 
is  made.  And  at  this  particular  point 
one  hundred  and  fifty  miles  below 
the  surface,  gravity  ceases,  becomes 
neutralized;  and  when  we  pass  be- 
3^ond  that  point  on  toward  the  ''in- 
side" surface  of  the  earth,  a  reverse 
attraction  geometrically  increases  in 
power,  until  the  other  one  hundred 
and  fifty  miles  of  distance  is  trav- 
ersed, which  would  bring  us  out  on 
the  "inside"  of  the  earth. 

Thus,  if  a  hole  were  bored  down 
through  the  earth's  crust  at  London, 
Paris,  New  York,  Chicago,  or  Los- 
Angeles,  a  distance  of  three  hundred 
miles,  it  would  connect  the  two  sur- 
178 


THE  SMOKY  COD 

faces.  While  the  inertia  and  mo- 
mentum of  a  weight  dropped  in  from 
tlie  "outside"  surface  would  carry  it 
far  past  the  magnetic  center,  yet,  be- 
fore reaching  the  ' '  inside ' '  surface  of 
the  earth  it  would  gradually  dimin- 
ish in  speed,  after  passing  the  half- 
way point,  finally  pause  and  imme- 
diately fall  back  toAvard  the  ''out- 
side" surface,  and  continue  thus  to 
oscillate,  like  the  swinging  of  a  pen- 
dulum with  the  power  removed,  un- 
til it  would  finally  rest  at  the  mag- 
netic center,  or  at  that  particular 
point  exactly  one-half  the  distance 
between  the  "outside"  surface  and 
the  "inside"  surface  of  the  earth. 

The  gyration  of  the  earth  in  its 
daily  act  of  whirling  around  in  its 
spiral   rotation — at   a   rate    greater 
179 


THE  SMOKY  GOD 

than  one  thousand  miles  every  hour, 
or  about  seventeen  miles  per  second 
— makes  of  it  a  vast  electro-genera- 
ting body,  a  huge  machine,  a  mighty 
prototype  of  the  puny-man-made  d}"- 
namo,  which,  at  best,  is  but  a  feeble 
imitation  of  nature's  original. 

The  valleys  of  this  inner  Atlantis 
Continent,  bordering  the  upper 
waters  of  the  farthest  north  are  in 
season  covered  with  the  most  mag- 
nificent and  luxuriant  flowers.  Not 
hundreds  and  thousands,  but  millions, 
of  acres,  from  which  the  pollen  or 
blossoms  are  carried  far  away  in  al- 
most every  direction  by  the  earth's 
spiral  gyrations  and  the  agitation  of 
the  wind  resulting  therefrom,  and  it 
is  these  blossoms  or  pollen  from  the 
vast  floral  meadows  "within"  that 
180 


THE  SMOKY  GOD 

produce  the  colored  snows  of  the 
Arctic  regions  that  have  so  mystified 
the  northern  explorers.^ 

Bej^ond   question,    this   new   land 

^  Kane,  vol.  I,  page  4J:,  says:  "We 
passed  the  'crimson  cliffs'  of  Sir  John 
Ross  in  the  forenoon  of  August  oth. 
The  patches  of  red  snow  from  which 
they  derive  their  name  could  he  seen 
clearly  at  the  distance  of  ten  miles 
from  the  coast." 

La  Chamhre,  in  an  account  of 
Andree's  l)alloon  expedition,  on  page 
144,  says:  ''On  the  isle  of  Amster- 
dam the  snow  is  tinted  with  red  for 
a  considerahle  distance,  and  the  sa- 
vants are  collecting  it  to  examine  it 
microscopically.  It  presents,  in  fact, 
certain  peciiliarities ;  it  is  thought 
that  it  contains  very  small  plants. 
Scorehy,  the  famous  whaler,  had  al- 
ready remarked  this." 
181 


THE  SMOKY  GOD 

"witliiii"  is  the  liomo,  tlio  cradle,  of 
the  human  race,  and  viewed  from  the 
standpoint  of  the  discoveries  made 
by  us,  must  of  necessity  have  a  most 
important  bearing  on  all  physical, 
paleontological,  archaeological,  phil- 
ological and  mythological  theories  of 
antiquity. 

The  same  idea  of  going  back  to 
the  land  of  mystery — to  the  very  be- 
ginning— to  the  origin  of  man — is 
found  in  Egyptian  traditions  of  the 
earlier  terrestrial  regions  of  the  gods, 
heroes  and  men,  from  the  historical 
fragments  of  Manetho,  fully  verified 
by  the  historical  records  taken  from 
the  more  recent  excavations  of  Pom- 
peii as  well  as  the  traditions  of  the 
North  American  Indians. 

182 


THE  SMOKY  GOD 

It  is  now  one  hour  past  midnight 

— the  new  year  of  1908  is  here,  and 

tliis  is  the  third  day  thereof,   and 

having  at  Last  finished  the  record  of 

my  strange  travels  and  adventures  I 

wish  given  to  the  world,  I  am  i-eady, 

and  even  longing,  for  the  peaceful 

rest  which  I  am  sure  will  follow  life's 

trials  and  vicissitudes.     I  am  old  in 

years,  and  ripe  l)oth  with  adventures 

and  sorrows,  yet  rich  with  the  few 

friends  I  have  cemented  to  me  in  my 

struggles  to  lead  a  just  and  upright 

life.    Like  a  story  that  is  well-nigh 

told,  my  life  is  ebbing  away.     The 

presentiment  is  strong  within  me  that 

I  shall  not  live  to  see  the  rising  of 

another  sun.     Thus  do  I  conclude  my 

message.  ^ 

Olaf  Jaxsen. 

183 


PART  SEVEN 
AUTHOR'S  AFTERWORD 

I  FOUND  mucli  difficulty  in  de- 
ciphering and  editing  the  manu- 
scripts of  Olaf  Jansen.  However,  I 
have  taken  the  liberty  of  reconstruct- 
ing only  a  very  few  expressions,  and 
in  doing  this  have  in  no  way  changed 
the  spirit  or  meaning.  Otherwise, 
the  original  text  has  neither  been 
added  to  nor  taken  from. 

It  is  impossible  for  me  to  express 
my  opinion  as  to  the  value  or  relia- 
bility of  the  wonderful  statements 
made  by  Olaf  Jansen.  The  descrip- 
tion here  given  of  the  strange  lands 
184 


THE  SMOKY  GOD 

aud  people  visited  by  him,  locatiou  of 
cities,  the  names  and  directions  of 
rivers,  and  other  information  herein 
combined,  conform  in  every  way  to 
the  rough  drawings  given  into  my 
custody  by  this  ancient  Norseman, 
which    drawings    together   with   the 
manuscript  it  is  my  intention  at  some 
later  date  to  give  to  the  Smithsonian 
Institution,  to  preserve  for  the  bene- 
fit of  those  interested  in  the  mysteries 
of  the  ' '  Farthest  North ' ' — the  frozen 
circle  of  silence.     It  is  certain  there 
are  many  things  in  Yedic  literature, 
in  ''Josephus,"  the  "Odyssey,"  the 
*' Iliad,"    Terrien    de    Lacouperie's 
"Earl}^  History  of  Chinese  Civiliza- 
tion," Flammarion's  ''Astronomical 
Myths,"    Lenormant's    "Beginnings 
of  History,"  Hesiod's  "Theogony," 
185 


THE  SMOKY  GOD 

Sir  John  cle  ^laundeville's  writings, 
and  Sayce's  "Records  of  the  Past," 
that,  to  say  the  least,  are  strangely  in 
harmony  with  the  seemingly  incredi- 
ble text  found  in  the  yellow  manu- 
script of  the  old  Norseman,  Olaf  Jan- 
sen,  and  now  for  the  first  time  given 
to  the  world. 

THE  END 


186 


By  WILLIS  GEORGE  EMERSON 


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